As I sat there watching my daughter up on stage in the final preparations before the ceremonies began I found myself looking back when our life started together. A fond memory I have is the day when her mother and I were getting married. She was our flower girl in all of her three year old glory and my daughter was to be our ringer bearer at age nine. I remember telling her that in a little while we will all be a happy family. With a smile she looked up at me and told me she loved me and we have always been a family. With tears in my eyes I continued my attempts to get her into pint sized white tights. She ended up besting me, our little flower girl shot out of the room we were dressing in and disappeared into the mounting crowd. I entrusted my other daughter to make damn sure those tights were on her. As I waited for my soon to be bride to walk out I see our little flower girl blanketing the walk way sans frilly white tights. Oh well, who needs tights anyway.
For those of y’all who are lost I can make it simple. Courtney, the one who graduated high school Saturday and her mother entered in to mine and my daughter’s, Lauen, life when Courtney was less than a year old. I have been her dad ever since. There isn’t a word such as “step” that has ever been used by any of us, Lauren (23) and Courtney (17), have just been sisters since day one and both have always been just our daughters. The end, if you want to offend either one of them or us, just call one of them the step-word. An outsider cannot tell they are not blood and an outsider never has a clue unless they knew all of us before we were officially married. Anyway, is that all clear? If not then I am sorry.
As excited as I was I still was a bit withheld with my emotions because my little girl was now a high school graduate. No matter what has happened before the toss of the tassel she will walk out a graduate. But, unlike many high school grads, she will not be heading off to distant lands to attend college, she will be going here locally. She has big plans, her goal will be to graduate college as a CRNA (just Google it). This is something she has been preparing for what seems to be a few years now. I don’t know exactly how she came to her choice but I know she will make a fantastic anesthesiologist when that day comes. Prior to her graduation it was a fun roller coaster ride looking back at her life in pictures. Yes, I know all of my babies must grow up but that doesn’t mean I have to actually like the idea. But it is happened, and it happened right before my very eyes.
When asked what she wanted for her graduation present from her mother and I she quickly responded with going on a cruise. A cruise? Even though I might not like the response, I can tell y’all now that we will be heading to Cozumel the third week in August. I should have some interesting stories when we get back. The day after we get back she has her first day of college. One never knows, I might actually like the cruise.
Maybe it was too soon to write this post because I have had s real hard time focusing on what I was going to say and have lost most of it while drifting off in to thoughts a way back when. I will probably come back and revisit this topic but for now I think I am probably done. So, that is that, she has graduated, and in five years my son will also graduate. Then that will be it, all three of my kids will be off doing what they do and being who they are. My oldest daughter graduates next spring as she brings her college career to a close. All of this graduating will end one day.
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