For those of you in the thick of it.  For those parents who run from here to there and always feel rushed and panicked because she forgot her gym uniform again, or he asked to stay after school, and now you have to figure out how to get a gym uniform to school before 3rd period and organize an after-school ride for one while you take another to guitar lessons AND YOU HAVEN’T EVEN GOTTEN TO WORK YET!  Yep. Most days, as soon as your feet hit floor, you are instinctively suited up to immediately start putting out fires.  You sit back at the end of the day in awe and wonder how you managed to get it all done and further congratulate yourself for not murdering someone.  So yes. To all of you in the thick of it; to all of you badass moms in the middle of pure chaos, ENJOY ALL OF IT.  I say this because, our number 2 in a series of 3 will graduate high school this evening.  Aidan, Carver Center for the Arts & Technology, Class of 2019, graduates today and turns 18 in less than a month. He’ll be attending a nearby university, UMBC, in the fall.  Having gone through all this graduation and college stuff already with our oldest back in 2014, I’m prepared for what’s to come this time. However, I know that it doesn’t matter that he will be living on a campus that is merely a 50 minute drive from our house.  The distance will not help the pain in my heart when we leave him there on move-in day.  Seriously, no one really tells you what it's like.  That pain.  I thought I knew what it was like to have a broken heart when Emily, then Aidan, and then Lela let go of my hand for their kindergarten classrooms.  That pain cannot compare.  College drop-off day was a bazillion times worse.  No one tells you.  No one tells you that you will sob, out loud, like a baby when you walk into her room when she’s gone.  Well I'm telling you.  You will cry.  It's sort of a pain like grieving or mourning.  It's the passing of a time that you can never get back and a birth of a new time that will be forever different.  After Emily went off to college in Boston in 2014, I felt guilty that my mornings were instantly easier with just two younger siblings to manage and cried that my chaos was less chaotic.  And I’m here to tell you that after a few weeks, you’ll still cry a bit, but you’ll manage the grief and pain in your heart a wee bit better.  You’ll wear your broken heart like a badge of honor like all Moms do.  And so yes, this time around, I’m ready for how Aidan’s graduation and college move-in day will break my heart.  I’m ready for this new chapter we're about to write with our Master Aidan.  Up until now it’s been an amazing read and story— and I’m ready to turn the page to see what comes next for him—-and well, for all of us.

So again, ENJOY ALL OF IT.  Let them paint their room that color you oh-so disagree with.  Let them hang things on their walls that aren't necessarily the way you would do it, and better yet, LOVE it.  LOVE ALL OF IT.  Because before you know it, you will be doubled-over on his bedroom floor weeping for just one more day with him home and your crazy-chaotic mornings to be what you wake to.  

xoTrish