Last year, on the last Thursday of the last week of school, my daughter came home from kindergarten acting out of sorts, blue and really, really down.

I asked her what was going on and what happened that made her feel that way.

"Our 'Word Wall' is down," she said. "The walls in our classroom are getting empty, and we took everything out of our cubbies today. It's not my same class, and it just ... makes me feel funny."

She was suffering from the ole "A New Change Is A-Comin' Syndrome"—the same one that I still suffer from with the change of seasons, change of schedule, change of just about anything.

My daughter's teacher was retiring last year and I'm sure that after close to 30 years teaching in the same county, she was more than ready to head out on June 16. And I couldn't be happier for her. I remember feeling like I wanted to start breaking down my own classroom on June 1 so that I, too, could walk out the doors the minute my high schoolers finished their last exam. I was free as a bird but with a belly full of butterflies until my new summer schedule kicked in. I can only imagine how my daughter's teacher must have felt walking into retirement in the next week. I wondered if my little one felt the same way, moving out of kindergarten and into a school-free summer.

I recall trying to explain to my 6-year-old that change is sometimes hard and that it's strange to watch something you're really familiar with move in a different direction.

I wanted to tell her that for some, change is hard. Really hard. I wanted to tell her how, whether it's a cleaned-out cubby or a blank Word Wall, the move from kindergarten to first grade or from school year to summer, it can take some getting used to. But we all move through it. We have to.

I thought about letting her know that in life, change is really the only constant, the only thing you can count on. I wanted to explain that there are very few things—people, situations, feelings, or events—that will remain unmoved and that just when you get really settled, something will usually come along to switch up your normal.

Big changes—from high school to college, single life to married life, a family of two to a family of three, good health to illness, and the loss of loved ones—are understandably difficult and painful for many. It could be the change from one baby two to (or three), the addition of a pet or the move to a new house. Or the changing seasons of friends, of relationships, of co-workers, it never mattered. They were all difficult for me. And usually these changes brought melancholy and moodiness until I got settled and appreciated the "newness."

I have tried to keep my kids fresh in their openness to try new things and embrace change on a frequent basis. I have introduced something "new for us" each week, and we celebrate steps of change when we can. We are active in our community, and we do what we can to be a part of something larger than ourselves so that we can keep things in perspective when change does come upon us suddenly. 

But sometimes it's just hard. And sometimes, no matter how minimal the change may be, we need a little time to mourn our loss before we are able to embrace what the future holds.

So as we made our way home from school on my daughter’s last Thursday of her last week of the school year, the last Thursday I'd ever walk with my oldest child as a kindergartner, we did talk about how changes are sometimes hard and that it takes a while to adjust to something new. 

And then we celebrated a sunny Thursday and summer and the upcoming weekend and we clinked our ice-pops together in a sweet "cheers" to the adventures that lie ahead.

Will it be the same this year? Will we all feel the aches and pains of moving from a school schedule to summer? Will it happen every year? I wonder, as my oldest finishes grade one, my son moves from the safety of pre-K to the wilds of  kindergarten, and my youngest finishes her first full year of preschool, how will our family manage? How will we change?