‘Tis the summer of graduations. 🎓 In remote learning, the slightly anticlimactic nature of this milestone is not lost on us. The perseverance of our kids is amazing. Despite being stuck inside for months on end, they did it. Navigating a new way of life, setting goals for their precarious futures, they built bridges via FaceTime, social media, & gaming -- asserting their classroom presence through Zoom & Google Meet. 💻🎧
Some, like our daughter, start university in the fall. 👩🏻🎓 And we watch. That awareness, of self and others, is quite something. With sensitivity to the world around us, and all that it encompasses, while there is deserved self-absorption, it is mixed with compassion. The ability to read people & situations, that beauty hurts the heart. 💔
While we may not know their every thought and action -- save for the glimpses they allow us here and there -- we trust in their resilience. Our teen was part of an impromptu “prom” as well as a (very late) after party here. Tired, but happy afterwards, she can reflect on what high school was to her. 📚✏️
Related to this, our Monday movie nights are an indoctrination into the world of John Hughes films. 🎥🍿 She remarks that teenagers today are not lighthearted -- no ‘dying’ over crushes, or a family wedding superseding their 16th birthday. While they may share some of that same emotional angst we did, their weight is heavier. Rather than short term day to day worries, theirs are larger, having a rippling effect. They know what the word depression is. They grapple with, and can name feelings we could not. 😞And while much is part of that age, some is not. Our worries for them are real.☝🏽 Hence our efforts to communicate more. And give credence to their struggles.
As our kids grow, our hearts are full. We grasp to help them move on, with that proverbial ‘good head on their shoulders’. 🤔
Grateful for whatever they divulge about their emotional ups & downs, we remain their safe place to land, whatever may come. 🏠
And that, we cling to for dear life. 🙏🏽
Proud of mother and daughter! And yes.. sad that these days teens have different worries that maybe our generation did. Or perhaps it’s just more awareness since much of this was ignored by our parents generation when we were Dealing with mental health issues