Homecoming.......

Homecoming.... Last night was the homecoming game for the Peanut's high school. It was also the very last one I would attend, as she's the baby and now a senior. It was so very sad on so very many levels, where to begin.....Firstly, it was a reminder that this is the last of the years of innocence for my Peanut, secondly it was almost traumatic to see how the world has changed in the six years plus since Sweet V (my eldest) has been in school. When she was attending, she was a cheerleader, so I attended many, many games during those four years. I hadn't been to one since she graduated and it was quite the eye opener. Firstly, there were NO cheerleaders, and more shocking, no BAND!...it was horrible, no one, no blue and white Spartan's outfits to lead us, to focus our energy, just people, and very few at that, wandering around, aimlessly, barely watching the game. (the football team, on the other hand, was great, kicked the opponents butt!) Then I started noticing THEM, girls with sparkly crowns on....ah, Homecoming Court, but my thrill was cut down to shock rather quickly. Every girl I saw wearing these crowns was dressed as if she grabbed the first thing she could find from the clothes pile in the corner of her bedroom, tattered jeans, sloppy, tight, raggedy tee shirts....where were the dresses, the gowns, the high heels, the perfectly coifed hair????? I was so very shocked and dismayed. It was almost as if the whole event was a joke. There was one girl, the girl who actually was crown Homecoming Queen. She looked like a Queen alright, a DRAG Queen! She was wearing gray dress slacks (yes, I said SLACKS), a white button down shirt and a grey argyle sweater vest, if it weren't for the high heel pumps and longer hair I would have sworn she was a slender male on her way to the office. It was so disheartening! I remember the days, and not so long ago when being picked for Homecoming court and being chosen the queen was quite the honor and something where you wanted to look your absolute girlie best. You wore a beautiful gown, got your hair done, nails done, wore your loveliest heels. seeing these girls take such a careless attitude made me feel so sad. This should be something that should make them feel honored, cherished by their friends and their school and here they were treating as if they were dressing to go clean out the garage! The lack of cheerleaders, band and the courts disregard really slammed home to me how our little community has failed our kids in respect to community pride and school pride. Some of that is my own fault, but it is hard to defend your child's school to your own child when most of the students aren't even from our community. The level of excellence has fallen so miserably that by middle school most families leave our community or send their children to private schools. By 6th grade most of the students are from another community that is on the verge of becoming a ghetto, lost children from broken families. How sad and how broken the world seemed on this night and it made me sad for my Peanut, she has such a jaded view of the world already and now I see why.....I must teach her more sincerely on keeping the Magick in her life, so as to not become so jaded and hardened that she loses her humanity, her innocence, her sweetness. Some motherly fairy-dust to keep her sane.......