It’s crunch time. There’s all of a week left of high school. It feels no different than any other week, though; kids stay up all night, sleep half the day, maybe finish their projects? In 7 days my children will be closer to being young adults – rising college freshmen. I’ve been accused of babying them. I suppose I have. I was so traumatized by my first child’s relentless pursuit of risky behavior that perhaps I purposely kept these other two from venturing too far afield.
My once goofy, silly and funny people are now less silly. They’re still goofy, I suppose, I have that to be thankful for. And they are growing up.
I think of everyone involved in their journey, from their preschool days to elementary school to today. Their grandparents, babysitters, honorary aunties; their godparents, their real aunts and uncles; their teachers and champions. The ones who would not sit by and watch them do only what was easy; the ones who took them on cruises and to Disney and let them do what they wanted when they wanted. The friends who reminded them of their strengths and their smarts. The friends and surrogate families who gave safe haven, in person and online.
It takes a village (or five) to raise children and I’ve had my fair share of help. I’m incredibly proud of the people they’ve become and am really interested in the people they are yet to be.
I’m having a really hard time with this post. I look at the picture of those very small, very goofy little people and am finding it difficult to reconcile it with the tall, mature young adults who live in my house. I’m still nagging them to finish up their work, to clean up their dirty dishes, to do their laundry. I’m still having anxiety about what still needs to be done for college enrollment (I have to schedule their doctor’s appointments and get their immunization schedules in to school – I forgot what date that has to be done by!) and what else I may need to do for them. We have no idea whether they will be on campus for the fall semester or not. I am assuming that they will be; that the schools will put mitigation measures in place and require students to be masked in public and in classes. So much to do.
We are taking it one day at a time, for now. I know that soon, the mess will be clean and the silence will be deafening. And I will live for school breaks and vacations. Secretly, though, I am looking forward to a clean, quiet house. At least for a little while.