The beginning of the next phase of my life

Tomorrow my first born starts school. Wow! I remember thinking for the past 5 years that I can't wait for my kids to go to school. Now that he's starting, I'm afraid for him. He's never been away from us for all day (yes-all day kindergarten). I'm turning my little 5 year old who has been protected by a paranoid mom for 5 1/2 years over to total strangers for an entire day. I worry that he's be totally worn out and have a meltdown in the afternoon. I worry that there will be discipline problems. I worry that he will find people that aren't very nice and hurt his feelings.

But do I show any of this on the outside? Of course not. I constantly tell him how much fun he will have, and how cool it is to go to school. He has his own Spiderman backpack with a matching lunch bag. He's already met his teacher and some kids at his table. When we went to the open house last week he met the boy that will be sitting next to him. Their conversation was like this:

Matt "We have a new baby at our house"
Gabriel "So do we" (apparently his mom had twin girls on July 25th)
Matt " So we have a minivan now"
Gabriel "So do we. Is yours a Honda?"
Matt "Dad, what kind is ours?" After asking Dad "No, ours is a Dodge"
And then they discussed the different bells and whistles of their minivans.
Ah, Male bonding. Over minivans.

So I need to try to get some sleep. Tomorrow starts the beginning of the next phase of my life. I do not get to sleep in for the next 17 years. Then again, it's not like I've really slept in tons for the past 5 1/2 years either. Wish us luck tomorrow morning.