Elaine Tse: Learning to Fly

Elaine Tse shares about the struggle of finding a high school for her oldest son.

Lyrics from Nelly Furtado’s song “I’m Like a Bird” float through my head as I watch the ‘V’ of Canadian geese fly overhead. Winter is coming. My toddler son had pronounced from his car seat, “That song scares me.” I paused to reflect that not having a home would be very unsettling to a child who loves his stuffed animals, picture books and his warm bed. And, now, my newly teenaged son is in the predicament of finding his next academic home.

I think that I am struggling with his leaving our magic bubble of a tiny kindergarten to 8th grade school more than he is. I am avoiding the big feelings by focusing on the minutia of the high school application process.

Should we use every single one of the allotted 1,200 characters on the parent questionnaire? Or, should we toss the entire application process into the electronic dust bin and happily dance our way to the local high school?

I know that whatever the outcome of the process, my son will settle into his new school. I remind myself that, in four years, we will have to choose a college or a trade school. Then, what next? There will be very little long-term permanence for the foreseeable future.

I hear the geese honk loudly in the rare grey skies. They seem to know where they are going. Their bodies have been trained to fly the long distance. I remind myself that my son has been in training as well with amazing teachers. I can also tell that maybe the small school setting is now chafing him.

His older friends have moved on to new adventures. Mother Nature knows best. While it may seem cruel to throw young birds off a cliff to allow them to spread their wings and fly, my not so little fledgling has outgrown the nest, and it is time. I must be brave and must push him off the cliff. Or, he might save me the effort and just jump himself. With a Perspective, I’m Elaine Tse.

Elaine Tse is the purveyor of happiness and joy to children around the world (and the children at heart) with her online toy store. She is the mother to a 13 year old boy who attends Helios School in Sunnyvale and wife to a tech husband. She cannot believe that she is paid to play with toys everyday.