"She's had two years of preschool but she still doesn't want to let go," said Heather Magee, after comforting her daughter Mariah upon arriving at her first day of Kindergarten Tuesday morning. "I don't who it's harder for, her or me." Fortunately for mom, after some tears and hugs, Mariah was soon busily coloring her picture of Humpty Dumpty with the other new students in Mrs. Lewis's class at Long Beach Elementary.
This morning was the first day of school here on the Peninsula, and while some were very ready to head back (my daughter was up at 4:30 this morning telling us she was ready to go to first grade) others were not so thrilled, as seen above. Even though it looks kinda sad, it was really a sweet moment between this mother and daughter. To tell you the truth, I've always wanted to get a pic like this from the first day of school, something real, something with emotional weight to it, and this is the first time I've actually succeeded. Defintely my best back to school pic I've ever made.
The key, as always, was patience, just hanging out, waiting, watching. I spotted her right away amongst the other kids in the class. She was clinging to her mom, which I thought could have potential, but they needed to seperate a little. They hugged a few times, which didn't really work. Then, as she was pulling away from her daughter she reached out and wiped away a tear, BINGO! That coupled with the way they are holding hands made for a great moment.
I shot it a litttle bit wide because I didn't want to get right in their face at that sensitive time, plus I wanted to show their situation juxtaposed to what other kids were doing in class at the time. All-in-all, a pretty good morning. On my way out of the building I stopped off at my daughter's classroom door, she was already busy holding court in her new room, big surprise...
-DKM
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