"The bus is FUN!"

Those words were shouted at me as I walked in the door to my mom's kitchen yesterday afternoon.

The words were shouted by the very same girl, who, nine hours earlier had put on her bravest face, looked at me one last time as if I'd betrayed her trust somehow and climbed onto the bus to school for the first time in her entire elementary school career.

She's in second grade, dudes.

She'd never once ridden a bus to or from school before yesterday.

But she pressed her lips into a hard, resigned line and climbed onto that bus and took the seat the driver pointed her to (her assigned seat, much to her relief) and off she went to school.

And I was on time to work during the school year for the first time in almost three years.

The night before this new bus routine, Alyssa didn't sleep much.

She was nervous. She was scared. She cried. She didn't understand why she had to start riding the bus.

Couldn't she just start with riding the bus to school for awhile and having Gram pick her up. Just for a little while?

No, we jumped in with both feet. She rode the bus to school and then back home again.

And it was fine.

Heck, it was better than fine, it was FUN.

I held her that Sunday night, whispering that the first day is always the hardest. Didn't she remember those first few days of school earlier this year? They were hard. They were scary and now? They're great.

She remembered, but it didn't help with the fear of the bus.

What if Gram wasn't home when the bus dropped her off?

What if the bus driver forgot that she was on the bus and didn't stop at Gram's house?

There were so many fear and she's only seven (for ten more days, she's only seven.)

But she did and I couldn't be prouder of her.

She did it and she realized and acknowledged that it was fine. It was fun.

My girl is brave. And she's tough and she's sweet and willing to admit those moments she realizes her fears were unfounded. She did tell me that it's also loud and bouncing. Which, when you're seven, makes it all the more fun.

She's awesome and I love that she figured out that the bus is fun.