today, as i was walking out to meet our parents and children (most of them for the very first time), at our pre-kindergarten orientation, i noticed that one of my sandals suddenly felt very loose. in a twist of perfect universal timing, it was irreparably  broken. i experimented with walking in it, but wasn’t able to do so without dramatically dragging my foot along, so i took them both off.

while taking off my sandals i noticed what i thought was a water mark of unknown origin on the side of my shirt, and that i imagined would ‘quickly dry’ but was actually a grease stain of unknown origin, that happened somewhere between my car and my school and which in fact ‘never dried.’  

when i lifted my head up from my sandal removal, i noticed that the entire underside of my hair was now dripping wet, and i was breaking out into some sort of a heat rash on the back of my neck, as the temperature had quickly risen into the humid 90ish degree range.

my daughter texted to see how the day was going and when i updated her she replied,”it seems like i’ve had a text like this from you before.” yes, she might very well be right, as we’ve known each other since the moment she was born, and have certainly survived more than one misadventure in our time.

once the families were settled into our room, i  presented my part of the orientation barefoot, greasy, sweaty, and rash-y, the parents were chatty and friendly, and the children were excited and happy.  

i realized that one of my hopes this year is to show and teach my kinders to see mishaps more as simple misadventures, to take them as they come, while trying to make the best of them. i’m confident they’ll learn this in no time, as children naturally tend to be open, non-judgemental, and willing to let things, go just seeing what happens.  and best of all – we have a new vocabulary word: