Transitions

I opened and read the last Prairie Winds Elementary School newsletter I'll ever read. I also printed the form for Beck to attend the middle school transitions classes. As I look ahead at the calendar, I see that in less than a month Frank and Doug will be on their way to California for a quick four-day college tour trip. And last week I got an email about senior pictures and when they're due for yearbook inclusion.

How did this happen? How did all these years fly by so quickly?

I say that Frank's transition from high school to college is made easier because Beck has six more years ahead of him. But it isn't true. I'm freaking out (more than a little) that Frank's life will be changing so drastically a year from now. He's freaking out too, and I wish he wasn't. Perhaps my insistence that life won't be so different, and that this will still be his home, and he'll be home a lot for vacations, etc., isn't ringing true. Maybe he's sensing the insincerity of my assurances. It isn't as though I don't mean them, it's more that I'm feeling the same way he is.

The boys have eight days left in this school year, and then we'll transition into summer. Last night Frank told me he isn't teaching swim lessons this summer. He's going to lifeguard, when he wants to, and otherwise do what he wants to do. I'm all for it. He's going to hate not getting much of a paycheck, but he'll have the rest of his life to worry about that. And we have six more years before we truly have to face empty-nestedness. Thank God for periods of transition.