Learned To Love You (Mateo Story)

9

Mom ❤️ "promise me you'll always remember: you're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think" - A. A. Milne

Today is Julian's first day of school and I am a nervous wreck. The kids are trying to calm me down but I know they probably feel the same way.

"Mom it's gonna be alright, he'll be fine" Ayo hugs me.

"Thanks baby, but I'm worried. What if he gets bullied!" I say starting to get anxious again.

"He'll be fine" Ayo reassures.

The reason I'm so nervous is because this is Julian's first year of REAL school. We've always homeschooled him because he was always in and out of the hospital and he would miss a lot of days.

I sigh and see Julian come down stairs looking cute for his first day of fifth grade. "Hey juju! You look cute"

"Thank you mommy but please don't make it seem like I'm a baby still" he says with his pouty face.

I take a deep breath, "Yes right. Okay come on everybody, to the car!" I watched them all grab their lunch boxes and we hurried out the door. We're dropping all the kids off today so they can see Juju go off to his first day of school.

When we arrive at the school we all get out of the car and crowd around him. "Remember if you start to feel sick go to the nurse right away."

Willow 🌸 "people will never truly understand something until it happens to them" -Unknown

I pull Juju to the side.

"How do you feel about your first day?" I say smiling at juju.

He sighed. "I try hiding it from mom, but I know they're gonna stare and treat me like I'm different, but I think I'm ready to experience the real world." He picked up his book bag and gave me a hug.

"Julian, they're most likely gonna treat you like you're different, they might even be a little rude. But don't let them make you feel like you're anything less than perfect. You are a gift from god and I couldn't ask for a better little brother" I kissed his cheek and he smiled and waved at us one last time before walking away.

My mom started to cry and we parted her back and walked back to the car. I looked at Sylver, who is a freshman at the school Teo and I go to, "you okay?"

She shrugged. "Can I talk to you about something?"

"Yes, anything."

She sighed, "well, you know how I still haven't gotten my period, it seems like EVERY girl in all of my classes has theirs and I don't"

Aweee she to grow up. "Well, that just means that you're a late bloomer. Your body isn't changing at the same pace as everyone else's and that's okay. There's nothing you can do to make it come faster so right now just be happy that you don't have to go through cramps and all of that right now."

"Okay, thank you Willow."

"No problem. And it is helpful to see when me and mom got ours, I got mine at thirteen"

She tapped my moms shoulder, who was sitting in the passenger side of the car. "Mom, how old were you when you started your cycle?"

My mom turned around, "fourteen"

My little sister nodded.