Every year, I bring a different version of you back to school shopping. It amazes me how quickly the supply lists have evolved from play dough and wet naps to sharpened number 2 pencils and spiral bound notebooks. You don’t care as much about those things as you do what color pencil box you’ll get and of course the type of backpack.

You insisted on getting the dinosaur one with the matching lunchbox and I reluctantly agreed. Part of me wondered if dinosaurs were still cool in 2nd grade. I worried that somehow you would present as childish if you were carrying a backpack with shiny sharp toothed monsters all over it. I wondered why you weren’t begging me for a “cool” Nike or Under Armor backpack like a lot of your friends seem to have. Surely, a neutral backpack like that would last a few more years, as I anticipate you will grow out of your nearly 5 year dinosaur phase at any minute. I almost tried to talk you out of it, until I looked across the way and saw versions of us 10 years into the future.

It was a mother and a son. They were burrowed deep in the college essentials aisle. They appeared to be comparing sheet sizes and their cart was overflowing with towels, cleaning supplies and dorm furniture. My heart sunk at the realization that that could be us in another decade. How quickly we evolve from character backpacks to neutral twin sized jersey sheets. What once was crayola crayons and glue sticks in the shopping cart, soon becomes lysol wipes and an industrial sized pack of shaving razors.

As you sat there proudly presenting your choice of dinosaur backpack, I caught a glimpse from that mom from across the way and I could feel a ping in her heart urging me to say yes. It was as if she were to say, “it doesn’t last long and it goes by way faster than you can imagine.” She had a look in her eyes as if she were longing for just one more year with her son in his dinosaur phase.

It was that moment that I realized how lucky I am to have a little boy that not only loves dinosaurs, but is proud of it as well. How sweet is it to be in this season of life where a special backpack makes school magical. How cool are you to defy what’s “hip” or in your words “skibidi”. I love that you can wear the backpack that serves as an extension of your identity and no one else’s. I admire that the world hasn’t peer pressured you into making choices solely based off of what everyone else is doing.

How special is it to be the mother of a little boy that is still very much her little boy. Thank you for always being true to yourself and for staying little while you still can, because one day we will be the that mother and son looking across the way at that little boy begging for a dinosaur backpack.