Waiting Time

Parent-teacher conferences are tonight at Birdie's high school. The teachers are arranged alphabetically at individual tables throughout the cafeteria and gym. Parents wait in line for seven-minute meetings. The harder the class, the longer the line and the more often a seven-minute meeting stretches an extra three. On my first time through, five years ago to meet with Daisy's teachers, I thought I'd never figure how to work the system--squeezing in seven-minute meetings with teachers while spending as little time in line as possible. Then I found a reason to slow down. All that waiting allows me to reconnect with friends. Some I haven't seen since Birdie and Daisy started driving. Others I have somehow missed running into since elementary school. Our conversations are always the same--"How are you?" "Can you believe how long it's been?" "I remember when they were little!" Asking questions and listening to answers is only the background noise to a greater shared truth. On this one night, while waiting together, we know that we have made it this far as parents and managed to raise a decent crop of kids.