This is it. Today's the day.
It may seem like just any other day: On your way to work, coffee at the ready, cell phone at your ear.
But today isn't just like any other day. Today is the first day of school for the Warren County School District.
Children in varying states of excitement will be boarding buses or walking (running) to school. Some of them won't be paying as close attention to what you are doing as you should be paying to what they are doing.
In an instant, a split second of distraction from that coffee or that phone, you could end a life and ruin your own. Your life isn't so short, your day so demanding, that you can't set aside both those things and pay rapt attention to the young people who are sharing your morning.
Yes, today is the day, but it will be followed by 179 more days before the potential for tragedy eases and another summer rolls around.
There is nothing more precious than a child's life, certainly not that text message you just got or the few degrees cooler your coffee will be when you actually get to where you're going.