Life as a single Mother-Empty nest, Dating, Ex-husband, Best Friends, Full-time Employment, Unemployment, night school...How do these all relate to one another? Come with me:

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Time is moving so quickly.

So.... here it is. My baby (Rachel) is now officially an adult preparing to go out into this big bad world on her own.
Last week she took her commencement walk. The weather could not have been more perfect.

We have been so busy preparing for her first semester of college. This is a first for all of us. I am a college graduate but I returned to school a few years out of high school. I also attended a school just a few miles from my childhood home.

It is a whole different scenario when the school is 300 miles from home.
We are juggling housing, class schedules, finances and all of this from a distance is frustrating.
She has also been working hard. So much money to save up before August.

In the midst of all of this planning... she will be tagging along on with her best friends' family on a trip to Virgina and the nations capital. A trip of a lifetime.
Although they have offered to pay her way on most everything, she will be paying her airfare.
All of this brings on a little bit of stress. For her. For me.
This too shall pass I understand.
I just wish I could get a gull durn job and help my daughter out a little.

On a lighter note: I am such a proud mother.
The month Rachel was born, I became a mother of three. I was twenty three years old and in the last month of the last semester of my first two years of college. Finals week was just nine days away. I had her, I took care of her in her first week of life while studying for finals with a three year old and a near two year old in tow. I then took her with me the next week to most all of my finals. She was bound to be a college grad!

Her father and I used to think about the future. All of our kids would be out of the house when we were still in our forties and it would then be our time to play.
Here I am. All three kids graduated. The second (the baby) ready to leave home. And I am not near as excited as I thought I would be.
I am of course excited for her. But I am also a bit sad. And proud. So many emotions.
Onward to the next chapter.. for us all.


2 comments:

  1. Sad and proud. I understand this so well.

    Many of us - especially those who marry and have children young (that's not me) - postpone our future-together-time for someday, when the kids are grown.

    It sounds good, but the challenge is that we don't know that our version of "someday" will arrive, and we may find ourselves in very different circumstances than we imagined.

    But proud of our kids - and the job we've done? That's huge. A major accomplishment. You have so much to be proud of. Times three.

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