I took my firstborn away to college. And I survived.
During last year’s prom season, I wrote about how we had begun the “Season of Lasts.” Well, that season has come and gone. I only recently realized that I hadn’t really talked very much about the end of that season. Here’s a brief wrap-up of Aiden’s Season of Lasts.
We have a high school graduate, y’all!
That’s right. He did it. Aiden graduated from high school. Not only did he receive his diploma, but he also earned the Governor’s Work Ethic Certificate, and he graduated with almost a year’s worth of college credit. Although this is only a step on his journey, we’re proud of his accomplishments. Congratulations to Aiden and the rest of the Class of 2019!
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A few weeks after commencement, we hosted an Open House at church. While there was lot of work that went into preparation for this event, I’m pretty sure we wound up putting the most amount of man-hours into the slideshow that ran throughout the party. We looked through hundreds…maybe thousands…of pictures and picked the best that summed up his story up to this point.
For those who know our story, it really shouldn’t surprise you that we included Let Mercy Lead by Rich Mullins. I mean, it’s one of the main reasons we named him Aiden to begin with. So we’ve known for a long time that we were going to use it in some way during a graduation celebration. The slideshow just made sense.
We have a college freshman, y’all!
Ever since we started touring colleges several years ago, we’ve been dreading and looking forward to and praying fervently about this all at the same time. We loaded up the van, got up bright and early one Friday morning, and drove to Taylor University to move our firstborn son into his college dorm room.
Once we got him moved in, it was time to hit the booming metropolis of Upland, Indiana. We stopped by the campus bookstore and bought some spirit wear. Then we found his bank. We also stopped at the grocery store. And we ate some Greek’s Pizza. Then that agonizing process of slowly saying goodbye began. Of course, we’d been leading up to this point for a long time. But this was the final stretch. I’m not gonna lie. I’ve done easier things. But it’s all part of the process.
We went our separate ways that evening – Aiden to his dorm room, the rest of us to a nearby Airbnb. We met him in the morning for brunch. Then it was time to say our goodbyes.
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There’s this awkward dance that happens when your children start growing up. It’s the Holding On and Letting Go Two-step. There are moments when it’s beautiful. I might even dare to say that it’s fun watching your child become his or her own person. You also encounter moments that scare you to death. And, of course, there are the ugly-cry moments, too. They’re all part of this beautiful, awful, wonderfully choreographed, yet also made up as you go along dance. I despise it. I love it. It’s all part of growing up – for both the child and the parents. And growing up is part of life.
I survived this go-round. We’re still doing this Holding On and Letting Go thing. I’m sure this dance will continue for quite some time. But we survived. We survived.
And that’s a good thing because we’re going to have to go through this again after Aly graduates this school year.
Let’s dance, y’all.
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