Just Passing Through

A child is someone who passes through your life on the way to becoming an adult.

This weekend we escorted Kristen to her college, told her we love her, hugged and kissed her goodbye. 

Hanging on in my mind is her exclamation the day she started elementary school at HNES. Papa! I can’t believe I’m a grader! The years are long for the child. For a doting parent, the years are gone in a flash. Kristen! I can’t believe you’re in college!

Having passed through, this is the actual becoming.

Fifty-eight years ago my parents drove me to Gainesville and helped me move into my dorm. Later that week my father wrote me that my mother had cried all the way home. She knew: I had only been passing through and it was all over. After that, my times at home were never the same as before. Thanksgiving weekend, Christmas holidays, and summer vacations were uneasy, even strained, because I was no longer willing to be under parental control. I had only been passing through, and had become an adult.

Kristen's time has come. She can handle it. How about Papa? 

A story I used to read to her is chugging through my mind.


We are all just passing through!

TW+