Where has time gone? I've been taking
my eldest child, Emily, to visit colleges. As a parent, it is
strange how we watch our children grow older as we do not.
While on a college tour, a feeling of
melancholy battled immense pride. No longer would Emily hold my
hand, for security and guidance, as we walked to the park or down a
busy street. Those days only live in photos and memories. She is
now an incredible young woman, amazingly independent, self aware and
slightly stubborn (not sure where she got that from). Walking a few
steps in front of me, she was dreaming of independence. Where I saw
a small, confining dorm room, her eyes twinkled with the promise of
freedom.
I look back, not in regret but
astonishment. Welcoming her to this world; listening to her first
words; helping her with her first steps; playing Candy Land; teaching
her to ride her first bike. In my minds' time line, it was all just
last week and now; she is graduating high school and planning her
launch into a story of a new life, her life.
In a few months it will be our last
summer together. Knowing I have prepared her seems a small
consolation to the thought of her hours away and less frequently in
my life
Writing this, I realize that the first
time I cut the cord, it was a whole new chapter in my life, the next
time it will be a whole new story in hers.
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