It would appear that my son is much more confident about the first day back to school than I was as a high school sophomore. I don’t know that he is any more self-assured. My guess is that his coping tools are just more sophisticated than mine were. How can you really know that the right people will smile at you or that the right words will come out of your mouth as you connect with classmates? Do you have any way of knowing what others really think of you? And what about the risks of being misunderstood?

People my age are apt to say that kids today have it so easy, but I would not want to trade places.