The Countdown to College Graduation

24 Apr The Countdown to College Graduation

I can hardly believe I’m writing this but, my oldest daughter will be graduating from college in a few weeks. Believe it or not, the years long process (yes, years!) of college planning and the pain of the letting go are still so fresh in my mind and heavy on my heart. It’s no joke, people. And yet, here we are, a little more than four years after her college acceptance, about to turn the page on yet another new chapter.

I got a call yesterday from a caring friend asking how I was feeling about the soon-coming massive milestone. It was a valid and thoughtful concern and yet I didn’t know how to respond. Later, as another friend fell down the rabbit hole of old hard drives, in flooded the texts of baby pictures. And the best I could do was reply with crying emojis. Then, this morning, the soon-to-be graduate called unprompted and said, “…it must really be weird for you, mom, to have a kid graduating college. Whoa!” Well said.

So, how do I feel about all of this? Well, for her, I feel thrilled, excited, giddy. About her, I feel proud, awestruck, amazed. But for me? I’m still processing. The truth is, I’m in total disbelief that it’s all happened so fast. I just didn’t think that college, and truthfully, LIFE was going to move this quickly. Neither my head nor my heart has caught up just yet.  There are volumes I could write, and buckets more tears I could, and likely will shed just thinking about the next phase of even more letting go. Spoiler alert: she’s not coming home after graduation for much longer than a quick visit. For now though, I’m just desperately trying to wrap my mind around the fact that my baby girl is about to graduate from college.

Whoa.