"Mom, you can go now, I'll be okay."

As my husband and I rushed to the classroom last night, I could hear my heels clicking in the hallway of the high school. We were two minutes late for our meeting that started at 5pm. As we enter the classroom and gather the information from the greeting table, I scan the room for seats. I smile at familiar faces. Parents, just like us, wondering how did we get here so fast. Juniors. One more year. This particular teacher is giving us information regarding college requirements for acceptance, ACT, SAT, the writing of personal statements and essays. As I am listening for more understanding of what is ahead for us, the date December 1, comes rolling out. I blink and wonder if I heard correctly. "December 1, of next year, your applications should be in the mail for college choices." I swallow and look at the other parents faces, surely, I heard incorrectly. The teacher continues..."you have alittle over a year to gather your information regarding your child and prepare your applications." I realize that I did hear correctly. OH MY!!!!! I sit in the classroom where our son is learning the depth of English and my heart travels back to the classroom where it all began. I see a white shirt with rolled up sleeves. Red Ked tennis shoes. Denim shorts and tow-headed blond hair. His skin brown from the summer sun and a crooked smile like his dadddy. As my husband and I stood at the doorway, our son found his chair for kindergarden. I am blinking to wash away the excess in my eyes. My husband is filming. Our little boy turns and says, "mom, you can go now, I'll be okay." And....that was it. I walked down that hallway to our car without knowing what the next 11 years would hold. As I tune back in to the present, I wonder what seat our son sits in? I wonder where he will go to college? I wonder how time has gone so fast? "And your child's personal statement should be unique and specific as to why a college would want to consider them as a student for acceptance." Unique. I will tell you what is unique. Watching our little boy turn into a young man and from the start I knew he would be okay and now I will be okay.