Feels Like School Spirit

I overslept this morning by seven minutes.

I know, seven minutes shouldn’t seem like much but when you’ve got your morning routine honed to the very last minute, those seven minutes mean a lot.

So we were doing our things, all seven minutes later than usual and Olivia glanced at the clothes I’d brought to the bathroom for her to put on. She informed me, “I don’t want to wear those clothes.”

“Why not?” I asked pleasantly. “This shirt has a sideways smile and says ‘Hello’ on the back.”

“But it’s not blue,” she told me.

And I got it. Fridays are the days that teachers can wear jeans and blue school shirts. The girls’ school colors are blue and grey and so all the school shirts are either gray with blue writing or the opposite.

I happily went down the girls’ room and grabbed a pair of jeggings and a blue shirt with a silver star sequin star on the front. When I presented her with the new outfit, she smiled happily but then asked, “Do I have a blue shirt with a sequin heart on it?”

“No, just this one with the star,” I told her.

She gave it some thought and declared, “Well, since I wore the pink one yesterday with the sequin heart the star is good for today.”

I nodded at her thoughtful choice and reminded her, “And the silver is really just shiny gray so you’re totally wearing Bomber colors today.”

She dressed herself with glee, so happy with the fact that she was going to be wearing Bomber blue just like all her friends today.

I kind of love this new development. Sure, it’s a little inconvenient to have to go get her an entirely new outfit but it only took a few seconds (out of an already seven minute late schedule, but what the heck) but she was so excited to fit in. And I want that for her. I want her to want friends, to make friends, to be one of the crowd even if she is so very genetically unique.

I want her to want to conform, even if just a little because it means she’s becoming aware of those around her and that’s been one of her biggest challenges to date.

So yay for school spirit; I think it might be just what Livie needs to find where she fits in at school.