Looking at the Bright Side

Well, it's official...Kayla has graduated! It's a day she'll never...remember. Seriously, she was on every type of cold medicine we had and was pretty much in a drug induced haze the whole time. Poor thing, she always seems to get sick at the worst times. Pretty much everytime we go on vacation, California, Yellowstone, I guess we have been on vacation more than twice, but still, it really sucked for her. And then there's Christmas. While everyone's ripping into their stash, Kayla is spread out on the couch hoping Santa left her a humidifier and box of kleenex. She rarely gets sick, but if it's a special occasion, her immune system weakens at the very thought of having too much fun. She'll probably get sick on her wedding day too.
I thought it was a real success, due to the fact that I didn't even cry. At least not during the ceremony, although the national anthem made me choke up a little. The guys who sang it were amazazing! I only got weepy when Kayla brought home her yearbook and I read a few of the comments made by her friends, they all love her! They all consider her such a good friend! They all want to stay in touch! And it made me sad, cuz I know how it is. She'll go off to college with one of her friends, they'll be best buds up there if they don't drive each other crazy. She might see a few others on occasion when she comes home for the weekend. She might go to a few farewells for her friends leaving on missions, and might even go to a few receptions. Eventually she'll get married too, have kids of her own, and before she knows it, 5 years will have past and she's going to the reunion and wondering how did I lose connection with these people I swore my undying friendship too?

Umm, maybe that was just me...afterall this is the facebook and twitter generation. She'll probably never miss a beat with any of them. She'll get to see their new dorm rooms, new boyfriends, new hair cut. She'll hear all about their hard classes, their boring professors, where their missions are taking them. She'll know before their mothers do when they become engaged, and when they get pregnant. So why am I getting all teary-eyed about it? Her friends will never be more than a click on the lap-top away. I get a grip and try to look at the bright side of things and have come up with my top-10 reasons of the "Best Part about your Daughter Graduating":
10-No more parent teacher conferences
9 - No more worrying about them getting out of the school parking lot safely.
8 - No more late nights helping her with her art/science/spanish/english project that didn't get started till the day before.
7 - No more reading and signing 8 different class policy forms.
6 - No more reminders every 5 minutes between 6:30 and 7:00 am to wake up or she'll be late.
5 - No more messages on the answering machine that say "Your student has missed one or more classes today" when you thought they were in class that day.
4 - No more honking huge piles of textbooks dropped by the front door.
3 - No more nagging about homework, staying up too late, and procastinating big projects.
2 - An extra $250 in my bank account come next fall cuz I don't have to register her for High School.....and the number one answer is.....drumroll.....dadadadaddadadadadadada
1 - Using the money I would have spent on new school clothes for her and going shopping at Kohl's for me!

I love you Kayla! I'm so proud of what you have accomplished all these years. I'm so excited to see what your future holds for you. I hope you follow your dreams and become a psychologist so you can come back home and help your poor old crazy mother when I don't make sense, although your probably already too late. I hope you love the college life and make the best of it! Then fall in love with some cute student who's going to make alot of money someday, and best of all, I hope you have a daughter just like you! Cuz you have been a complete joy, and you deserve someone to give you as much love and laughter and joy as you have given me.

But then again, you'll probably just get sick.