Last Day of Kindergarten

Trying to find the words for today is a tough one. We've seen hundreds of people’s pictures of their kids first day of school and their last day and how they have compared the 2 and how much they have grown and changed over the year. We have that picture too, but ours looks very different. Looking at those pictures are heart-wrenching, not only because it isn’t normal, but because of the eyes. The eyes changed. There was a point where there was nothing behind them because of being weathered by the storm, because of the loss of his innocence, because of the things he has seen and had to do.
In that same respect, the progress is beyond words. When Cooper’s first day of school was supposed to be, we were in a hospital still very much unsure about the details of his diagnosis, prognosis, and what this meant for our family as a whole. Since Cooper was supposed to start kindergarten he has changed immensely, some because of progress, but also because of how sick he really was. When you look at the change in our boy over the course of his kindergarten year, take a good hard look at what cancer does. It is evident, but mostly in his eyes, because that’s what tells the story. Cooper has changed so much in the last year. Although, for the most part we have felt like time stood still during this school year because Cooper lost year 5, and so did we, somewhere between, chemo and coping, we look back and we’re not sure where that little 5 year old went because we don’t remember him really growing, but all of the massive physical changes that took place because of medicine instead. 

So instead of 2 pictures we have 4. The first is 2 weeks before school started in the hospital when Cooper was diagnosed. The second was supposed to be his first day of kindergarten when he was in the throws of induction and steroids. The third was his first day of Kindergarten in April, and the 4th is today, his last day of Kindergarten. There is beauty in seeing how your children grow and change over a year, but this year was hard, the changes were hard.

All of that being said, we can proudly say that Cooper conquered his kindergarten year, like no child should ever have to. He rolled through it with grace and positivity. He absolutely loved kindergarten! He still has a very long journey ahead of him, but today we will celebrate his last day of Kindergarten, his bravery to walk on that bus with his bald little head, and his perseverance to always work hard because he wanted to be just like everyone else. We could not be more proud of the year you have had to face and we couldn’t be more proud to be your mommy and daddy. We love you Super Coop.