The Writing Callous: DAY THREE

S keeps getting out of bed: "I can't sleep!"  "I've got too much in my brain!"  and then finally, "Look at this, my finger hurts."  The third time she emerges from her room, it's coming up on 9pm. I'm tired and hot and quickly sliding into "Go to frigging sleep" mode.  I can't imagine how she'd hurt her finger in bed, so I just glance down without giving it much thought.  And there it is.  Wow, I remember that.

S has the early stages of the pencil callous.  She actually has the pencil blister which will evolve into the pencil callous.  Remember the pencil callous?  Erupts when you first start writing more than you've written before and you're gripping that thing real tight and the yellow painted wood rubs on your finger?  I ask because this may not be a common experience.  This may only happen to lefties as we tend to hold our pencils between our ring and middle fingers instead of our middle and pointers.  But I would assume it can also affect the middle.  S has it on the fourth finger of her left hand, exactly where I had it.  I wrote so much in third grade, really discovered my love for it, that my callous grew into a lump.  I used to rub it with my thumb.  It relaxed me.  Between my wrinkly thumb and lumpy ring finger, it was easy for me to remember which side was my left.

S's teacher sent home a short questionnaire for parents to start conversation with our kids (I assume.  I can't imagine she actually wants them back).
The questions include:
What was your third grade teacher's name?  Ms. St. Denis
What do you remember learning in third grade? Cursive writing
What was your favorite subject?  Reading/Writing

S, reading it over as I put a band-aid on the blister, asks, "Writing?  Really?"
"Yes, why?"
"That's like the opposite world answer to me."
"Well, I became a writer so...I guess I like writing."
"Huh,"  she says.  "I guess you must."

In the hour before bedtime she has fluctuated between a giggle fit and a non-sensical meltdown.  Through tears she says that school is too tiring and that she has no friends at recess and that she actually does have friends at recess but she is too good at four square and it's hard being the best at things and everyone wants to hang out with her and she doesn't like having to be with too many kids at once...
I let her go until it winds down.
Then I ask, "So you're upset because you're too good at things and too popular?"
She stares at me for a moment to see if I'm mocking, then bursts back into the giggles.
I tell her that's what we call a "quality problem."  I also say I hear her and I adore her and she'll probably feel better after a good night's sleep.
It's easy to belittle the meltdown of a kid going back to school, but honestly, it's a lot to be with twenty-two kids all day long after a summer of road trips and camping and only having to hang with who she chooses when she feels like it.  I don't like to be mandated to a room with people I haven't chosen for hours on end.  I'd probably meltdown a bit too.  And I sometimes feel overwhelmed when people want to hang out and I'm weird about being good at things.  Though I suck at four square.