By Elizabeth Magee, LRD
Emotional. Tired. Discombobulated.
Three words describing my current state planning my daughter’s upcoming grad party.
I spent no less than one semester learning about quantity foods. Passed the class even! I have no idea how much of ANYTHING to have on hand. Food, drinks, you name it. I’m predicting there will be either enough for 44 people or 738. Absolutely no in between. And if I’m being honest, I hope we run out of food! I don’t want to eat these foods for the next week or have a freezer full of things. I won’t even be embarrassed if we run out (Will my daughter? Yes!)
Now let’s move on to another section. The party is in the garage. Will you know you are in a garage? Yes. It will not be magically transformed into an amazing spot with guests wondering, “How did they do it? Will they rent it out? Will our party look this good?” It will look like a nice garage that was set up with love but is still our garage. And it took a lot of work just for that.
This leads me to tell you a secret about the inside of the house – no remodeling took place for this party. No new flooring, new appliances, or new decor in the house to really make things pop for this party. Does that mean we don’t need any of these things? Absolutely not. Hahaha. There are many reasons for this. I’ll share a few – no judgment please. To start, that’s just not who I am. Those things are all expensive, and when it comes to money, I’m fairly practical. I’m not trying to impress people. We live here, the house works for us, and in our eyes it’s not a dump. That also doesn’t mean I don’t care about the party. It’s a big deal and I’m proud and happy to have this party for my daughter!!
Let’s talk about the emotional rollercoaster I’m on. Digging through old pictures and school projects really opens memory lane. Some of the things feel like so long ago I barely remember them. Yet some feel like they were yesterday. How is that even possible? It’s bittersweet. My brain has been focusing on the bitter (I swear I’ve been working on this).
Don’t get me wrong, I’m so excited for her, proud of her, and curious to see what’s next! She is going to have the best time in college and I’m looking forward to watching the next chapter. But I’m selfishly sad for myself. For a long time, it was just her and me. And not that it’s been perfect, but it was just the two of us for a long time. Now she’s onto an exciting chapter; but this one that is closing is really sad when I think about that. I don’t know what the next chapter looks like for me. It's up to her to decide when to call, text, come home for the weekend. What if she doesn’t visit? Or call me to check in? Send random pics of what’s happening in her new world? It's scary to think about that for me! I love this kid like nothing else. I’ve worked really hard trying to raise a good lil’ human, and now that’s coming to an end, and I just feel sad. Knowing I won’t have her activities to follow and at the end of the day, she won’t come home. It’s a lot to feel.
I can’t possibly be alone in this; people send their kids to school all the time and have lived to tell. Some have told me it even gets better with adult kids!! Let’s hope so!!
Cheers to this class of 2025!! I’m excited to see what they do! And I’m happy for them! If you’re feeling like me, and the sadness is winning, try to have some grace with yourself. They are big changes and big feelings we’re going to learn to navigate. We can do this!!
Elizabeth Magee is a licensed registered dietitian. Her posts appear monthly on OYT.
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