Friday night my family attended my oldest daughter's high school homecoming football game. She's a senior this year so it is important for us to do all of these high school things. It seems like only a short time ago that I was a senior in high school. Of course I did not really attend many high school events, I had a baby to take care of. Now that baby is looking at graduation herself. That game Friday felt to me like the official start of the end of my baby, and the beginning of a wonderful young lady.
You see, my baby girl was and still is painfully shy and hates new situations. As a child, this kid would not speak to people that she had known her entire life. She interacted with family and close family friends, but that was it. Even at the age of 9 and 10, if someone gave her incorrect change she would rather just do without the change then have to speak to a sales person to correct the matter. We always had to force her to do things that she was afraid of. There were a lot of tears involved in it, but we felt we had to make her face some of her fears, just to show her that she can do something.
Friday night, however, my shy scared silly daughter walked out on the football field before the game with her friend and represented the senior class with the alumni association. Hundreds of people watching and looking at her, the announcer calling her name and talking about her. She did not flinch, she did not stumble, she did not fall. She walked out with her head held high and smiled the whole time. She found her inner strength and she worked it! She was scared shitless, I know she was, I could see it in her face. But she addressed that fear, and knocked it out of her way. I am so damn proud of her. It wasn't something we forced her to do, she volunteered for it, which just makes it all the better.
Up next we get graduation announcements, winter formal, prom, and hopefully a lot of fun times in between before the big day. My daughter who doesn't like being away from the family is applying to colleges out of state, and away from home. She's kind of iffy about doing so, but we're gently encouraging it. Even if she ends up going to one close to home and lives at home, well, she at least had the courage to apply to something farther away, and knows that she could do it.
It is truly amazing to watch your children grow and change and really come into themselves and take those steps into adulthood. My baby is going to go far.
