From Crusader to Knight

The whole family packed into the minvan this week to take Brighid to the University of Central Florida, where she will be one of a small city of young adults entering as a freshman this coming fall.  The odd thing about this picture is that when Brighid applied to the University of Florida, I appealed to her to consider UCF.  We took her over Christmas break to see the campus, and she refused to get out of the car, saying she didn’t want to go to school there.  We took her again on another more recent trip, and after  making a quick potty stop about 15 minutes away from the campus, she told us not to bother and to just head back to the hotel.

So how funny is it that here we are, teenage daughter in tow, wandering the UCF campus?

She has bought in hook, line, and sinker at this point.  She has bought the t-shirt, the sweatpants, the sweatshirt, drank the Kool-Aid, and is excited about starting school in August. 

It is beautiful to wander around the campus – with the trees and the reflecting pool, and the grassy areas.  There are tons of kids, so if she doesn’t make friends, it will not be due to a lack of opportunities.  She might even find a boy among this throng of kids that she likes and can tolerate for longer than 13 minutes!

I admit, I’m feeling a little old.  I could not imagine 17 and a half years ago standing in a college bookstore with my then 2 pound, 10 ounce little girl, picking out the UCF Mom t-shirt.  It was easy to dream of what she would become and the possibilities before her, but not so easy to really imagine myself standing here, on the brink of her adulthood, trying to figure out how to be happy about cutting those apron strings.

If you’ve been through all of this before – or you’re going through it now – let me know how you do it.  I for one can clearly see a need to up the minutes on my cell phone plan…