Luke is a preteen in every sense of the word. This is the first year he is at a school without his mom in the same building. For six years, kindergarten through fifth grade, I knew nearly every special event or activity he was going to need money for. I knew when he needed to bring snacks in. I knew testing dates. I knew it all. Not because he told me, mind you. But because I heard the announcements. I got extra copies of the newsletters from his teachers, my coworkers. I heard his friends talking about things in the hallway & asked for more information in a quickly written email to his teachers.

Now he attends middle school. This has been a learning experience for both Luke and for me. I’m no longer in-the-know about things. Shoot, neither is Luke. I think I did him a disservice all through elementary school getting information behind the scenes. Or maybe I did myself a disservice.

I say all of this as an introduction for my next story. I don’t know if a notice was sent home about starting swimming in gym class or not. If it was, I didn’t get it. I’m not even sure if Luke got it. The first day of swimming, he wore his gym shorts in the pool. I have no idea what he used for a towel.

The following day, he says, “Oh! I need to bring swim trunks and a towel. We’re swimming in gym.”

“You’ve already been swimming in gym or you will start swimming tomorrow?”

That’s when I learned of the already-dirty-gym-shorts-turned-swim-trunks. I begged him to bring them home the next day. Or maybe just pitch them. (Just kidding about throwing them out… kind of.)

Then it hit me.

“Where do you keep your pump when you’re swimming?” He looked at me like a deer in headlights. “You did disconnect, right?” Blink. Blink. Stare. “Seriously?! You disconnect for the shower, why wouldn’t you disconnect for the pool?”

Well, his pump must still be working. It’s been more than 24 hours and his sugar levels have been steady, near perfect even. He takes it off and we shake it to see if we hear water swooshing around inside. Nope, no water. Not even a little bit.

“You sure got lucky this time!”

Fortunately for us Luke, the t:slim is watertight. It can withstand water up to 3 feet for up to 30 minutes. And fortunately for us Luke, the first day in the pool was only for about ten minutes in the shallow end.

Luke is one lucky kid. And I can only look back and laugh.