Day #434 – My Girl is Home! Summer is on its way!

Sweet William in the backyard

My little girl, who will turn 19 in the fall and is a grown woman in her own right, is home after her first year of college. I still refer to her as my little girl, but she is anything but a little girl these days. 

My brave, intelligent daughter has grown so much since she left home in August of 2020, even though she was home for the holidays in between. This pandemic year has wreaked havoc on us all, and she was fortunate to be able to be on campus and create new friendships (socially distanced, of course.) She joined an improv group and a political action group on campus. She has discovered that she is actually more intelligent, socially adept and emotionally strong than she had previously given herself credit for. (As her mom and her biggest fan, I knew all of these things already. But we do have to figure stuff out for ourselves, right?)

I left Saturday afternoon to pick her up from her school in Maryland. It is normally a three and a half hour drive, no big deal. I hit every traffic jam you can imagine on my way there. It was closer to four-plus hours for me to arrive. On the hottest day of the year. UGH. We did a quick packing of the car and off we went, for the return leg of the trip. This time, I got to be the passenger. That was a treat. Again, major growth moment for both of us – her to do the long drive home and me to put aside my anxiety and trust her to get us home safely. 

We talked all the way home. She filled me in on everything she had not yet told me about her freshman year. We shared updates and milestones. Dreams, ideas, plans. In those moments, I am so grateful to have a daughter; to watch her change, grow, and mature into the young woman she is today. 

The ride home was the proper three and a half hours. No major incidents. No minor incidents. Just a proud mama and her daughter, catching up at 75 MPH. (Don’t judge. People were going way faster than us the entire time.)

Summer is almost here and my house has the appropriate amount (and tenor) of noise.