Learning to Walk.

My eldest daughter graduated from 8^th grade today. Just this morning, it seems, we were looking at each other for the first time, she helplessly up at me, grabbing my finger and reassuring me that we would get through the journey ahead. The calendar pages have browned and fallen; the path never seems to stop growing behind us. The baby in the pink blanket is now a young woman in a white robe and square cap.

My pride and amazement, of my children, never ceases. When Emily received The President's Award for Academic Excellence (not Achievement) this year, I was shocked and pleased.

Next year, Emily will be going to a parochial high school I'm not that fond of. A school I went to for a year and only learned, through observation, that smart and educated are not synonyms. Some years later, in college, I ended my educational career when I was asked to leave a class after a heated debate about The Civil War (I was in a Dallas College and for the record, Grant had every right to break Lee's sword. He was, after all, the victor.). I hope the school Emily is going to has gotten better. I'm sure she will succeed, because or in spite of the school. She has a thirst for knowledge that I did not develop until later in life.

As an Alumni of her grade school, I was asked if I would like to walk in the procession.  The last time I walked in a procession at the church, I was wearing a blue gown and square cap. It was 27 years ago.

As I sit in the church, I watch Emily walk down the aisle; I fight tears. Shortly our path together will end and a new path will emerge for her. I say a prayer to a god, I know she believes in. I think of how much I cherish the education that my mother struggled to give me. I think of the tools and gifts I received from this school. I am thankful that they have shaped me into who I am today. I look at Emily, not as my little girl, but as a young woman and with a sigh of relief realize, the school has given her the foundation that she needs. They taught her to take her first steps on the road of life.