Freshman...Part 1

My husband looked at me the other day and said, "You know...we have two freshmen this year."
To which I replied, "Is that a tear in your eye?"
He just shook his head and swiped at his "dry" eyes as he went downstairs to play a football game on the Xbox...which is his way of pushing his own emotional reset button.
So here is our youngest freshman.
Tall.
Confident.
Handsome.
PROUD of his shoes.
Loving.
Tolerant.
Dyslexic.
I wonder if he will be befriended by upperclassmen.  I wonder who he will invite to Homecoming (or if he will even go).  I wonder how his new teachers will respond to me and his diagnosis at the 501 meeting scheduled next week.  Every year I irrationally hope he has somehow outgrown his dyslexia.  But it remains, less obvious perhaps, but persistent.
I know he looks forward to getting his driver's permit, marching with the band on football fridays, and (he fervently hopes) getting taller!
So I hug my boy, who smells like a man, and take his first-day-of-school picture.  And I know that whatever happens this year will be what is supposed to happen.  And when it's over, none of us will be freshmen anymore.