...more day and I will be the mother of a college graduate.
Of course this day is all about Nicole, but this is a new experience for me, and though I think I know what to expect, I don't.
What I do know is that this feels really different from her high school graduation. When Nicole graduated from high school, I was incredibly sad. I was proud of her achievements and I was excited for the adventures to come, but I was sad that she would be moving out of my house to go to school, that she wouldn't be sleeping in the bedroom down the hall, that I wouldn't be seeing her smiling face every morning and every night, that I wouldn't know if she were safe, that I wouldn't hug her or smell her hair every day--that the role I was currently playing as her mother was going to so drastically change.
This time around I am filled with elation. This is an entirely new sense of joy.
Because this is a path she has chosen. This is an achievement she has created for herself.
And because we have already found a way to stay in one another's lives while not living under the same roof, this graduation brings nothing but feelings of acute pride for how far she has come, incredible hope for her future, and a sense of overwhelming satisfaction for the role Mark and I have played in helping her get this far.
As part of the natural course of things, I have also been thinking back to my own college graduation, 22 years ago. When I graduated from college, I was hugely pregnant with Nicole, and delivered her just a couple of weeks later. While the graduation gown did a pretty good job of hiding my enormity, it was my swollen ankles that gave me away. That and what I like to call the preggo shuffle. When handing me my diploma, the esteemed gentleman shook my hand and said, "Looks like you've got much more to be congratulated for than just this degree, young lady."
Indeed, I had.
So Nicole and I have, as they say, come full circle. 22 years of days growing together; and this day, this graduation day, will be one of the shiniest of them all.
PS Happy Birthday Olivia! I love you!
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