And She's Off

It has been an interesting last few weeks as we celebrated the youngest's college graduation, had a party,  visited with doctors to follow up on health issue that being in college exacerbated,  lost one of our dogs, and packed her off to her internship in upstate NY.  She and her dad are driving her car there as we speak. Then he will catch a plane in the morning and fly back home as she sets up her living arrangements by herself for the first time in her life.

I have always been available to pre-clean her room, make her bed and arrange her furniture. Yes, she's 20, but I am an unrepentant child hoverer... that and the fact the she is very messy by default, I have figured out a system where she can function and use the room in a way that will avoid her tendencies to be a slob.  The fact that she is sharing a small studio apartment with another person has me nervous, but perhaps the presence of someone so close will make her at least pick up her clothes and towels. I hope.

While I am excited for her, I am already looking forward to her coming back home at the end of the summer and telling me about all her adventures in that animated way she describes her life.

My youngest homeschooled child gets her college degree

Tomorrow I pack a bag and drive a couple of hours to my daughter's college.  I realize that is a short drive for an overnight stay but an intimate college has intimate ceremonies and that includes an event Friday night, and graduation Saturday morning... hence, hotel and overnight bag.

I dropped my daughter off at her college less than 4 years ago, my only daughter. It didn't take long for her to find me some more daughters for me to love. Not all survived the journey at this college, but tomorrow, I will be cheering for at least 4 graduates, not one. I love them all like they are my own... as a matter of fact, I spoke to one of them on the phone for over an hour today.  Two of the girls in particular, her besties, couldn't be more like her if I raised them myself. They are literally her left and right hands.  I pray that they stick together through all the good and bad that this world has to offer.  While my daughter is always my daughter first this trio she has created has me excited for what is to come next.

But back to my daughter.  This homeschooled kid (center), who the preschool teacher said could not learn to count, who the Kindergarten teacher said was too fidgety and that she would make a good athlete, who the first grade teacher insisted needed ritalin, who I decided to homeschool for her sanity, this kid, is finishing college before her 21st birthday.  This means she started college right after her 17th (summer birthday) and she will turn 21 while she is away at her internship this summer. She may not be Einstein, but she is graduating with a 3.67 GPA and in record time, as her last semester was merely a formality and at her pleasure. She had met the requirements for graduation in 7 semesters.

That is all.  My heart is full.