Gabby, a Grown and Flown friend, writes: Returning last week from our oldest daughter’s college graduation, I feel somehow aligned with those graduates, as I am a parent moving from one major life phase to another. During the very joyful weekend, my husband, more literal and fiscally oriented than me, kept repeating ”one down, two to go” referring to our younger two children. Meanwhile, I tried to silence my more sentimental thoughts for fear of getting weepy, or sounding cliché and down-right old.
It doesn’t feel like yesterday that I brought this child into the world. Remembering those early days of motherhood seems more like walking around a neighborhood I lived in long ago — quite familiar, yet vaguely dream-like, with some of the important details completely elusive. On the other hand, it actually does feel as if I just dropped off my daughter as a college freshman. Continue reading