Stormy Years

The teams are named after storms, which is really quite fitting when they are likely the stormiest times of their lives, teenagers and their raging hormones. Last week, the 5th graders got their team assignments and met their 6th grade teachers at the middle school they will be attending. Students from eighteen 5th grade classrooms of three different elementary schools in town will merge to four teams, or "pods" as they are commonly called because of the layout of the building.

Back when I attended middle school, I was in the White House. My sister was in the Red House. Guess what the 3rd house was called? *Yawn*. If you were to ask Tommy what team he was assigned to, he would tell you he was on the Monsoons, while some of his friends were with the Tsunamis or the Twisters or the Zephyrs. When he goes to 7th grade, he will be with either the Cyclones, Hurricanes, Thunderstorms, or Typhoons, and in 8th grade, with either the Blizzards, Heatwaves, Nor'Easters, or Tornadoes. All crazy weather patterns I couldn't keep straight, and that also very accurately reflect the experiences they will endure. Not to mention those their parents will also suffer.

The daughter of one of my very good friends attended preschool with Tommy. Jillian's mom and I alternated carpooling.

They both had the same teacher for Kindergarten, although Jillian attended the morning session, while Tommy attended in the afternoon. But we made sure they played on the same soccer team.

Jillian and her family came to meet Tommy's two younger brothers at the hospital after they each were born.

They would attend different elementary schools and there wasn't a chance they would be classmates again until they got to middle school, and even then, they would have to be assigned to the same team.

Jillian has 2 older sisters who doted on and adored Tommy's younger brothers during their babyhood years while we all attended a weekly play group at St. Jude's Church.
This is where Karla and I met, in fact. Many summers found us enjoying hot days at their house where we would swim in their pool.


We also took excursions to the beach.


Tommy and Jill were inseparable and Jill even told her grandmother she was going to marry Tommy someday.

As they got older, they naturally gravitated towards friends of their own genders because boys to girls were not cool and visa versa. By the time they are pre-teens, they have begun to notice classmates of the opposite sex, only not so much as the one who built sand castles in the sand or played hide-n-seek with you.

We saw Jillian yesterday at her sister's high school graduation party and naturally, I asked her what team she would be on next year and she said she was assigned to the Monsoons.

For some reason, I wasn't at all surprised.