One Last Morning

For over 10 years our family has had a very pleasant morning ritual: we are all together in the same car to begin our day. My wife and I are in the front, our two sons in the back, and that 25 minutes of togetherness as we drop the kids off to school is special. Now granted our cognitive abilities vary greatly from morning to morning; but even half awake it's a comforting feeling to be surrounded by those you love.

We would talk with the kids about the upcoming day: any tests, anything unusual going on, or just get clued in to today's classes. When they were younger we'd help quiz them on their spelling words or science tests. Bad traffic, horrible weather, straining to be on-time - all was made better by tackling it together.

We would arrive at the grammar school first and drop him off, next the high schooler, whose school starts 15 minutes later, then myself at the Bank. My wife would keep the car with her, so she could pick the boys up mid-afternoon from school. Fortunately we were all within 15 minutes of each other, making this carpool arrangement feasible.

But I was reminded today that even the longest and most pleasant journeys reach a destination and their natural end. Our eldest graduates from high school Sunday; today he had his last final. A small matter in the scheme of things - but significant to Mom and Dad - he has graduated from our morning ritual. College and beyond beckons, and that can't happen from the family back seat!

We had been told by others that this four years of high school zooms by at lightspeed: before you know it he's graduating. Four years seems like a long time when it's in front of you; and I've been doing my best to keep my head planted in the sand so as to ignore the days rushing by. But fending off change is inevitably doomed to failure, and of course I am grateful for these last four years. Still...this isn't easy.

September will be here before we know it, and with it a new school year. This time a new high school student will be front and center. But with our eldest doing his college thing, and me perhaps in a job located farther away, our family morning ritual will be no more. And dear God, I miss it already.

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