And So It Begins...

Yesterday, my son's updated Facebook status announced that his high school graduation was exactly one month away. Between now and then, graduation photos have to be purchased, announcements need to be mailed, the class yearbook has to be picked up, prom tickets have to be bought and the class ring ordered. Of course it will all get done, but that's just the stuff that PRECEDES the big day. There's still a whole host of other stuff to do between then and his "moving into the dorm" exodus.

Not really one to procrastinate, when I found a hanging laundry basket and a shower caddy today while browsing through one of my favorite area stores, I figured it might be a good time to get started. I must admit that I got a little choked up in the towel aisle because I remembered standing in the same store looking for a colorful Disney towel when he was taking swim lessons for the first time. Hard to believe that was about 15 years ago.

So now my son has a couple of things for college - including enough deodorant to choke a horse and a few towels bath towels. Other toiletries, sundries and necessaries will probably be picked up as I see them on display (and preferably on sale, if you know what I mean)...

I have a feeling that packing his stuff into the car and moving it into his dorm will either be the one of the easiest or the absolute hardest things I'll ever have to do.

And So It Begins...

In the mail a few days ago was a letter addressed to both me and my son. He'll be 17 on the second day of the school year (his final year in high school), but I wasn't quite prepared for what was inside: information about scheduling an appointment for his senior portraits/graduation photos.

I guess my denial should be over, but it isn't. Sure he's taken SATs, been to a few "college nights" at his high school and has begun earnestly looking at which schools to apply to and visit, but I still can't believe he will be a high school senior in a few weeks. Wasn't he just in a onesie and chomping on a pacifier?!?

Not only are the college visits on the horizon, but applications, auditions (he plans on majoring in performing arts), FASAF forms, scholarship and grant perusals, senior prom and all that stuff is, too. It will be a very exciting year for him, of course - but an expensive one for me as a tuition deposit for whichever school we settle on will be due in 11 short months!

A few of my friends are going through the process of packing their eldest children's stuff and driving them off to college. Many of them are excited for their kids - especially when they think of their own college days. Some of them are happily planning on converting their child's bedroom into a study or sewing room and one is publicly celebrating the fact that she will finally have her car back. But all of them are experiencing the tugging at the heart strings when they realize their "babies" have grown up and are moving out.

A year from now, that will be me. I know there will be tears and confetti as well.

So let's get this party started...