Back of the Bus

People like to spin rain on important occasions as good luck.
So what if it rains on your wedding - the most anticipated day of your life - and the limo splashes mud on the dress you fought off other rabid brides to get a Filene's Basement? It's good luck! No one's ever gotten divorced whose had to cancel their wedding-day oceanside photo shoot right? Right.
And rain at a funeral is considered lucky as well.
Lucky for who?
Seems to me the poor sod getting memorialized could have used that luck a few days earlier.
But rain on the first day of school? No one tries to look on the bright side of that because there is no bright side unless it's to say, "Look. It's raining out. You might as well go to school."
Rain on the first day of school is just the physical manifestation of the rain in a child's heart as he or she climbs on board the bus, having just figured out one week earlier that having nothing scheduled to do and being board are not the same thing. Or maybe it symbolizes the rain in the heart of a teacher who has finally gotten over feeling guilty for relaxing at the beach and not grading papers instead.
Rain on the first day of school washes away the fake smiles and prolongs for at least one more day a child's anxiety over who they'll play with at recess.
Rain on the first day of school is entirely appropriate, especially when the only thing that's great about third grade is that now (finally!) you can sit at the back of the bus.

song: Back of the Bus • artist: Bill Harley