Eighteen years ago to the day, I wrote about how time was likely to fly by, and suddenly K and I would realize that our daughter was no longer a little girl but instead, a young woman:
And then, a little voice: “That is how you’ll wake up one morning and realize she’s going off to college and for a brief moment, feel complete unprepared for it, and feel she’s completely unprepared for it.” (Source)
That was May 20, 2007. L would in a few years be chirping that she’ll be “the class of 2025,” and that year seemed impossibly (mercifully) far away. Until it wasn’t.
Our sweet little girl graduated high school today. It’s difficult to imagine that I’m not just writing some fictional piece when I type those words. But eighteen plus years have passed; elementary, middle, and high school flew by, and suddenly, we have a college freshman.
But she does still have that little girl in her.
Something else that hasn’t changed in all that time: people are still mispronouncing her name. Even when, during rehearsal, she corrects them. Three times. Today it was a long E in her first name and then “Marie” instead of “Maria” for her middle name. He got the last name — 33% accuracy. I know: it’s not that big a deal. But still, at one’s graduation, it would be nice to hear one’s name pronounced correctly.
