She graduated from college.

If you have followed me for any amount of time, you saw me write about my experiences with a daughter in middle school, high school, and then on to college in 2022. You read about her last middle school dance, her transition to high school, and then everything that went with sending her off to college 450 miles away. Well, in May, she graduated from college! She has been here in Charlotte all summer, working an awesome internship. It will carry her through the end of July, and soon after that, after she goes to Lollapalooza in Chicago, she will be moving away again, this time to New York.

Years ago, my mother made me laugh when she said, “No house is big enough for two women.” I thought it was funny, and she did too, but she actually meant it. While I have loved having our daughter home for the past ten weeks, she is ready to move on, and I’m going to be happy for her when she moves to New York for her first “big girl job” and leaves us in the dust. She will be living her dream. I’m also going to be happy that I’m not doing extra laundry. Call me a mean mom, but the sheer amount of laundry that girl produces is unreal. Yes, she does some of her own laundry, but if I’m putting in a load of clothes, I might as well add hers to it. I have a feeling that, when she is doing all her own laundry again, like she did in college, she will remember how to wear things more than once between washings.

When I graduated from college in the late 80s, I moved to Atlanta (the big city of dreams back then) and took a job that paid me pennies. I got an apartment in a decent part of town. My parents gave me a car and paid my car insurance. Occasionally, they would send me a check (yes, a check) just because they wanted to, but for the most part, I lived within my meager means. Looking back, I’m still not sure how I did it. And even though I was making pennies, I still managed to save money.

Maybe our daughter will find a way to save a little money too. I mean, at least New York has awesome thrift stores and sample sales! We will need to furnish the apartment for her, but she should be pretty well set at that point. Furniture, toiletries, kitchen supplies, bathroom supplies…we will take care of all that for her. If she can’t be there to accept delivery of furniture, I can spend a few days there and take care of things. It’s what moms do, right?

You know what else moms do really well? Worry. I’m not a big worrier by nature, but I do worry about my daughter. Before she started preschool, kindergarten, middle school, high school, and college, I worried. Things worked out. Were there hiccups here and there? Yes, but I can’t remember most of the hiccups and can’t remember details of most of them. The one I do remember: when she had mononucleosis and pneumonia at the same time her junior year of college. I had to fly down and take care of her. I got a hotel room and ran errands for her, took care of her, and just handled things for her. She had managed to pick her prescriptions while she was miserable, but she needed a nebulizer, and they were tough to find! I finally found one after driving all over town…found one at my fourth stop (after the employee at the 3rd stop secretly told me where to go, so her boss wouldn’t know she told me). Our daughter would never have been able to go all over town looking for the nebulizer. She was miserable. As soon as she started breathing treatments with the nebulizer, she perked up a bit. That’s the only big hiccup I really remember. And that tells me most of what we worry about doesn’t happen…something else my mother said.

Yet, here I am…worrying about my girl. We have found a good apartment for her. She will be living with a friend from college. We are collaborating on decor, so I’m not worried about that at all. I just want our girl to stay safe and enjoy life. I’m excited for her. I know she will love living in New York. I know she has lots of friends there. I know it will be the experience of a lifetime. I’m thrilled she gets to do it.

I know I’ll feel better when she settles in, but for now, I’m just a mom who has mixed emotions: excitement, worry, and yes, a little sadness. Every time I start to get sad, I remember she will be just one flight away. It’s a great thing that we live in a hub city for American Airlines.