We gave our third grader the opportunity (aka forced her) to participate in the neighborhood swim team this year.  Since she’s never swum competitively, she asked why people write “Eat my bubbles” on their arms and backs.  (Good question … sounds a little harsh, right?) I explained that when the people in the front of the race are kicking, the people who are behind — the ones who are losing the race — are “eating the bubbles.”  

She said, “Oh.  I get it. That phrase really makes sense because I’m the slowest, so I’m always the one eating everyone else’s bubbles.”

It’s been that kind of year for our family.

While we have much to be thankful for, we’ve experienced a lot of newness this year.  A lot of trying to catch up.  A lot of being the “slowest.”

We moved across the city and enrolled all three children in three new schools — elementary, middle, and high — we learned (kind of) the names of 30 new teachers, hundreds of new neighbors, countless new streets and routes … tried to remember the carpool procedure, absence-reporting procedure, make-up work policy, dress code, PTO schedule of three new schools … We were behind. All year long.  

In hindsight, at the beginning of the school year, I would have created seven graphic tees for myself in different colors, one for each day of the week, all of which say:  Sorry. We’re new this year.

The back would simply read:  Bubble Eater

The year of being behind — of not only not being on the ball, but not even really knowing where the ball is — comes to a close, I am thankful for our family’s opportunity to remember what it’s like to be new.  To be disoriented. In some cases, to be excluded and forgotten.  To always be at the mercy and in the debt of those who have been around for a while. 

Because eventually we’ll make it back to the front of the race, but this time we won’t kick so hard.  We’ll stop to bring others along beside us.  We remember what it’s like to eat the bubbles.

“And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.  Fear the LORD your God and serve Him.” Deuteronomy 10:19