So I went to register Maddie for school this past week...thus begins a new chapter. It's both interesting and somewhat horrifying for me to realize, again and again, how fast the years go by, and how the rate of acceleration only seems to increase as I get older. There's such a dualistic quality to it: on the one hand, it seems like it was just a blink ago that I was folding a mountain of onesies and spending every spare cent of credit on diapers and formula; on the other hand, it's been two years since Maddie and I moved out on our own and I can hardly remember it being any other way (which is a good thing!).
The most disturbing part of the whole process was not only the thought that Maddie will be in school with other nose-pickers and bed-wetters, future truants and criminals next fall, but the realization that I am now in a position to join the PTA. There we were, sitting in the waiting area as I filled out the forms, surrounded by parents who had brought in their frisky teenagers for meetings with administrators. There's Mr. and Mrs. Jones, the annoyed and busy parents ("Yes, Mr. Administrator, we are aware of Nathan's truancy and are doing everything in our power to change his behavior. He won't be playing any video games for the next month, and we've taken away his driving privileges."), and there's Nathan, slouching in his chair, awaiting his punishment from the Grand Marshall of MPS.
And then there's me. At least ten years older than dear Nathan, but twenty years younger than the folks. Old enough to have a child of my own (or I wouldn't have even been there), but young enough to remember how it feels to be in one of those chairs, with my mom sitting two feet away, waiting for the administrative assault to begin. It was at that moment, sitting in the second-hand sofa, filling out the forms, that I realized a shift had occurred. Somewhere in the last ten years, I was slowly and covertly metamorphosed - brilliantly! so intricately and quietly as to be undetected even by myself! - from a deviant, misdirected, angst-ridden teenager much like young Nathan over there in the corner, to an Official Member of the Parent Class! No one's going to search my pockets when I leave! I have cigarettes in my purse, and I won't be punished! Do you know what this means? Do you?
I HAVE INFILTRATED THE SYSTEM.