This going off to college thing sneaks up on you. Busy, busy getting ready, all the excitement of something new, a trip, a city to explore, and so on. Back home, and life seems pretty normal for a while, until one day you realize you keep expecting her to walk in the door and chatter with you, and there's silence where her laughter ought to be, and that funny lump inside you isn't indigestion but a longing for someone you've loved every minute of her life.
And on that day you cry a bit -- not in misery, just in longing -- and you spend a while cradling memories of your child as a newborn, as a toddler, as a kindergardener and fourth grader and lanky tween and 9th grader. You think of belly laughs and silliness, of first words and first heartbreaks. Your heart is rich and thankful, brimming with gratitude for this tremendous gift of a life which has made your world bigger.
And you miss her.
and she misses you too.
ReplyDeleteAnd here I thought it was hard sending my eldest off to her first day of high school today! PS What a lovely picture of your lovely girl!
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