For the last week or so I’ve been doing last minute prepping details for my daughter’s high school graduation. It’s been a mixture of things from frustrating (just because of the tediousness of all the details), and exciting, and of course extremely emotional. Even though my daughter technically turned 18 on the first day of May I knew my actual job wasn’t really done until she successfully walked across that stage and received her high school diploma.
And yes, of course I know that a parent’s job is never actually done, but from birth until high school graduation is one really long chapter and once it closes the next chapter is going to look a bit different. I know this next chapter is going to be me parenting an adult child. I have to balance knowing when to trust that I raised her well enough to make the right decisions for herself and her newly adult life while knowing when to covertly sneak in and steer her in the direction I know is best for her but still making her think it was all really her choice lol.
I’m laughing but not really because isn’t that what we do when you strongly advise them to do something, giving them the benefit of our experiences. After that we just cross our fingers and hope they make the right call and that if they don’t make the choice we would’ve made, pray that your child is right and you are actually wrong because then that means they will be okay.
I am praying that I did a good enough job and that I instilled in her what she needs to make the decisions that will make her journey, not easy, but worthwhile. I don’t know how this new chapter of parenting and this brand new chapter of adulthood for my child is going to go and I wish I can say I’m one of those people who embrace the excitement of finding out along the way but you guys know that I am not that person lol.
I just pray that this next chapter for her will be everything that she wants it to be and that I will be able to be there for her in the way that pushes her forward and motivates her because I didn’t have a mother that cheered for my dreams and that supported my creative endeavors. I didn’t have a mother that I could even go to for advice about how best to follow my dreams so I have tried to be that for my daughter.
I just hope that I did my job well so that she can walk her journey with confidence and assuredness that she can, in fact, have everything that she dreams of, as long as she’s willing to put in the work for it. Graduation day is tomorrow and thus this chapter will be closed and a new one can begin. I’m just crossing my fingers and I’m going to cheer her on the whole way through.
Until next time… #BeBrave #BeEmpowered #BeFearless
Jimmetta Carpenter
Writer/Editor
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