Commencement

OnlySon has graduated.

It was a fairly quick ceremony, compared to both of my daughters’, inexplicably, as the class sizes were comparable, but for whatever reason, it went easier. Which was alright with me.

I teared up a couple of times, when they first walked up, realizing that this was my youngest, my baby…and he was now old enough to claim his high school diploma & entry into adulthood…leaving childhood behind.

And when he stood in line to await that diploma, that final walk before he left his mother’s care, and her home, to venture into the wide, wild world as his own man.

A Man in Motion.

He was not to be stopped.

With a grin on his face, he kept going…leaving me to find my own way from here on out.

Bittersweet Graduation

Today my middle child graduates from college.

Oof.

21 years I’ve had this lovely girl with me, through all the joys and terrors, we’ve made it to this time and place.

And I don’t have enough of the correct words to express just how proud I am of this lovely young woman.

She has always been the most fiercely independent of my 3 children. And the most focused & determined to achieve her goals. 

She decided in high school that she wanted to be an elementary teacher, & now, 4 years later, she has done it!  She already has a couple of substitute teaching days lined up for next week, & has been looking at job possibilities for next fall.

This darling girl…. er, young lady.  I’ll have to get used to saying “lady” and “woman” when referring to my girl daughter from now on.

That’s going to be tough, especially when she’s always been my “little girl”.

She’s the one who delighted in being the little princess,  while her older sister rocked the “tomboy” moniker.  She’s told me repeatedly over the years, that she’d prefer to be 6 years old, & still my little girl.

The daughter who learned how to run in high heels before she could walk without tripping in sneakers.

The daughter who would load herself up with all the costume jewelry she could find, including her many, many tiaras, when she’d clean her room.  Often, I think, she’d fantasize herself as Cinderella when asked to do household chores.

The daughter who, even today, would prefer to spend the day hanging out with her grandmother, helping her garden, or bake, than just about anything else.

This daughter, this adorable,  ferociously funny, eminently tender-hearted, & tenaciously stubborn woman. She is my miracle girl, having survived at least 3 things that should have ended her life much too soon.  She lived, because she has a special purpose and destiny laid out before her in the coming years, I truly believe that.   Read on, & tell me I’m wrong.

1.  She survived being born with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck – twice – AND the cord had a granny knot tied in it.

2.  She survived falling out of her crib at the age of 1 & 1/2, landed on her head, & suffered hairline fractures to her skull.

3.  She survived a car crash on black ice, which flipped her car upside down, crushed a good portion of the car, sprayed glass all over, & she got out with just a couple scratches & bruises.  The cops have no idea how she lived, nor how she escaped from the car, & neither does she.

My girl has a busy, but highly effective, guardian angel.

And a purpose she has not, as yet, fulfilled.  I know this, in my bones, & to my core.  She is meant to do & be someone special..

She already IS someone special.

She’s my daughter.

And I have been blessed for 21 years to be her mother.

I’m so proud of you, my darling girl.
Stand straight, look forward, & smile… for today belongs to you.