I awoke this morning after sleeping in a hotel bed…after a flight down the east coast…after a 3 hour delay and sitting in the New England airport for five and a half hours…after rushing around at work to ensure my grade 8 team and my students were supported because of my absence today…thinking I’d wake up exhausted. Instead, I lie here in bed, after eating breakfast delivered by my adoring husband and magnificent step-father, with the covers up to my waist, with butterflies of excitement wrestling with the digestive juices in my belly.
My baby is walking across the graduation stage of the University of Central Florida in just a few short hours! Just that thought brings tears to my eyes and a lump in my throat. My heart is pounding with love, admiration and pride of this beautiful young woman!
I want to lose myself in this day, focus on her, her wisdom, all I’ve learned from her throughout her life and especially through these last years as she fought the prejudism inflicted upon her from her senior year of high school. People gave unsolicited advice at such a vulnerable time in her life, leaving her second guessing all the plans she had made. She persevered throught it all with strength and grace. She forged her own path, as I delighted in watching her take step after step into womanhood. She is an amazing young lady!
She is going to help heal the world! Before she does that though, I have today. I have her, my beautiful daughter, the part of me I love so much I can’t even put the feeling into words, my life-long friend, my inspiration to be the best person I can be.
Perhaps I’ll grow up to be like her one day!
I am inspired by my daughter.