Here's how we're adjusting to having no kids in school

It has very little to do with the topic of today's post, but I wanted to show you this photo, the result of me prompting an online artificial intelligence blog image generator to create a graphic depicting "parents of older kids." This is what the AI image generator returned. None of these are actual people, but I do feel bad for #4 and #5 and whatever led to their, um, unique facial features. Clearly some online AI tools are better than others. Let's move on...

Our youngest, Jack, graduated from high school nearly six months ago. This is the point at which we're supposed to be missing it all and figuring out what our new normal looks like.

Which I suppose is what we're doing, but it's somewhat different for Terry and me.

For one thing, I'm at Wickliffe High School (sorry, the Wickliffe Upper School...or the Campus of Wickliffe, if you prefer) just as often now as I ever was. My PA announcing hobby/side business has me showing up at the school dozens of times a year for football, soccer, volleyball and basketball games, along with Wickliffe Swing Band performances.

So it's not like I don't still see the place with some frequency.

As for Terry, she maintains close ties to the Swing Band. If she's not at the school itself, she's texting or visiting with her friends from the Wickliffe Band Boosters.

On one hand, none of our kids are Wickliffe students anymore, so we've been getting used to that part of it.

But Wickliffe being Mayberry and all, we couldn't entirely extricate ourselves from the school system if we tried.

I can't speak for my wife, but I will say I feel a little pang of nostalgia nowadays when I see other people's pictures from homecoming, band concerts, sports awards and the like. That used to be our life and now it isn't. We're not the first to transition away from it, nor will we be the last.

On the plus side, our family calendar is much more open than it used to be, and there are undeniable benefits there. I don't entirely miss the days of rushing around to get the kids wherever they need to be.

There's also a "been there, done that, no need to go back" aspect to it. We put in our time and now there are new adventures ahead, which is exciting. I've never been one to want to return to the "good old days," as I've always felt I'm living the good old days now, at every moment of my life.

In sum, while our case may be a little different from others, we're still getting used to not having kids in the local school system. Like anything else, there's some good, some bad, and a whole lot of in-between.

Half a year into this phase of life, we're doing OK.