CHILD’S GRADUATION – How I felt as a Parent!

To all the Mamas out there, I can’t tell you how you’ll feel when you wake up on the morning of your child’s graduation. But I can tell you how I felt (a few years ago now for me) and how you might feel when it’s your turn.

I felt hopeful.

I felt grateful.

I felt uncertain.

I felt excited.

I felt sad.

I felt joyful.

It reminded me of something.  I think it was motherhood.

There’s no one “right” way to feel, of course. In fact, “one” is not usually a number that’s up for grabs on the emotion tally of any given day and certainly not on any given bigger-than-usual day.

I think when we’re staring down a milestone event or a shifting of seasons, we get scared because we think we’re going to feel a way we’ve never felt before…that we’re going to have to forge ahead and carve out a brand-new path.

But—and this is somehow comforting—we mostly end up feeling what we have felt where our children are concerned many times before, if in a heightened version.

What we felt when we felt their first kick.

What we felt when we first laid eyes on them.

What we felt when they first went off to school.

What we felt when they played their first game or their first song or their first part.

What we felt when they first got behind the wheel of a car.

What we felt when they went out on their first date.

What we felt when they started their first job.

Hope, gratitude, uncertainty, excitement, sadness, joy.

So whatever kind of day with you wake up to on The Day, go ahead and feel ALL THE THINGS. 

Your graduate has earned that cap and gown. And you, dear mama, have earned this.

by Elizabeth Spencer