Pomp In Our Circumstance

As I write this we are less than a month away from dropping our eldest daughter off for her first year at college.

18 years went crazy fast.  2003 was the year Ruben Studdard and Clay Aiken were on American Idol.  I know this EXTREMELY obscure fact because my parents and sister were in town for the American Idol Tour the weekend she was born.  It seems like a long time ago and yet not all that long ago.

We are definitely ready for her to go.  We love her, but if you have (had) teens you know what I mean.  She’s a bit restless.  She wants to be on her own.  Test her abilities and see where life leads her.  We’ve always focused forward with our girls – grateful for the things they’ve been a part of but always moving through life using the windshield rather than the rear view mirror.  We’re excited for her next chapter.  And she’s ready for it.

The hardest adjustment for us is that we’ve always been on both sides of her life transitions up to this point.  Pre-school to kindergarten.  Elementary to middle school.  Middle school to high school.  But with graduation from high school, we won’t be there day to day anymore.  We’ve been a foursome for 14 years.  That’s going to be the biggest change for the three of us staying here.

If you’ve got younger kids, enjoy that time.  Don’t focus so much on the passage of time as you do on just enjoying the day-to-day as you float along.  For us we get to do high school all over again, this time with our youngest.  And I have to learn the traditions at the school of our new university student.  Off to practice the fight song....

Dry Guy Andy