My Baby's big Day

So here we are, it's Senior night for Jenny tonight and I even know what that means.  As my girls grow up, I am more and more Americanized.  What will I do when they are out of the house and living their own lives?  They are the ones teaching me the newest lingo, correct my English, and roll their eyes when I just don't get it.  I shall stay on topic.  Senior night.  Jenny is all excited and sad at the same time.  Marching Band is coming to an end, but if her team keeps winning, there is always another Friday of meeting with her buddies and going crazy in the stands.  Four years of High school marching Band and once that's over she still has her concert band going, but whom are we kidding?  It's just not the same, although she enjoyes the sophistication and is proud to be first chair flute, marching band is just quite the different animal, which fits her crazy personality really well.  Senior night is also bringing along Realization.

I still remember her first day of school in America.  I didn't know what to expect, starting with the fact that a school bus will stop at the house and pick up my little girl.  It's funny, I can still bring forth the image in my brain of her turning around mid way up the bus stairs, looking at me and wearing that big, big smile.  And when she returned after what felt like an eternity, but really have been only 4 hours, she couldn't stop talking about her first day in school.  By the time she was 13, she had been in more schools than grades. 


Now that it is Senior night, I am close to tears.  Next month, my little baby is turning 18 years of age.  I still catch myself often, staring at her and getting lost in memories.  I can still feel her tiny hand in mine, still recall how soft her baby feet were, I can still hear her baby laughter.  And now, this is her last year of High school.. why the heck did time have to run this fast?  

She will be off to Hawaii this coming summer to study Marine Biology.  She will grow into womanhood while away from home, away from me.








This is soooo crazy.  I didn't sign up for this when I had my girls.  Where I come from, we keep Family together.  Your children move out and move perhaps down the street or to the other side of town, which usually is just 30 minutes away at most.  In America, the sense of family seems to get lost with the beginning of college and that makes me sad.  All I will have from here on out are maybe long weekends and holidays with my Jenny.  But then I will feel how my mom must feel, I assume.  My mom was such a proud grandma for Jenny's first two years of life.  My mom doesn't show emotions openly.  When I told her that I was pregnant, she got up and left without a word.  I must say, it was an odd feeling she left behind.  Four hours later, she returned and handed me a huge bag.  Inside, all you need for a new born and on her face, a little smile.  These days, she hardly knows the girls.  Every time we come for a visit, my mom smiles and takes the girls away on shopping sprees and gosh knows all the things she does with them.  I have to say, I am afraid of the day Jenny moves away.


But tonight is her night and I will join her in her smiles and laughter.