Life is What Happens...

Today was the first day of school for me.  In a round about sort of way, of course.  During my lunch hour this afternoon, I went over to the elementary school closest to me office, ready to start the 2013-2014 season of my weekly volunteer session with Read to a Child (the artist formerly known as Power Lunch.)

Much to my broken heart and dismay, my utterly beloved student of the past two years - the one I was hoping to be matched with for another year - is no longer enrolled at the school where I volunteer.  The woman who runs the program said she hasn't seen her all year, has no record of where she might currently be enrolled.  Talk about no closure.  The last time we said our goodbyes in May, I was so sure I'd see her again the following year, that I don't even have the slightest idea how to track her down, how to at least say a proper farewell.  Knowing I will likely never see her again is just plain sad.

Now, I won't make myself out to be a saint. When the program coordinator called me to tell me about my new match, explaining that I wouldn't be getting the same student I'd had for the past two years, and that instead I'd be paired with a new fourth grader, I was so disheartened that I had a quick moment during that initial phone call when I silently debated whether or not I should just bow out of the organization now, prior to even meeting this new student.  But of course, the voice of good reason and sense chimed in, reminding me that I shouldn't play favorites; that each and every student could and will benefit from something like this.  And who knows?  (Suddenly, even at 34 I could hear my Mother's voice pepping me up like she used to when I was worried about not knowing anyone at whatever event I was headed to) Maybe I would actually make a new friend.   

So today at lunch, I signed myself in at the school, climbed the stairs to the library with my name tag on, picked a round table near the front of the room, and waited patiently to meet my new reading buddy.  On the first day, the organization always gives each pair of student/volunteer a questionnaire to fill out, a worksheet of sorts.  Side one asks the sort of simple "getting to know you" stuff one might expect: do you have any pets?  what do you want to be when you grow up?  do you have any siblings? etc.  Side two focuses more on books and genres, acting as a tool to help us discover what types of books our students might enjoy throughout the year: do you like mysteries?  silly stories?  etc.

The very last question on the form was: "Is there anything else you'd like to know?"  I read it aloud to my student, tacking on my own second question as well: "Do you have any questions?"  She looked at me, shook her head and said no.  I reached for my pen to write her answer down when she looked at me again.  "Actually," she said.  "There is something I'd like to know."

Eager to engage her, I smiled. "Oh yeah?  What's that?" I asked.

"Well, I'm wondering what comes next."

"You mean today, while we're here?"

She shook her head.  "Not exactly..."

"Or do you mean, just in general, overall?  Like, what happens next in Life?"

She nodded, excitedly. "That's what I mean.  What happens next in my life?"

I smiled back at her and nodded my head.  "I know exactly what you mean," I replied.  "I wonder that same thing all the time myself."

I picked up my pen and wrote her question - our eternal question - down in the last blank square on the page.  "What. Comes. Next?"

Something tells me she and I are going to get along just fine this year.