Tuesday's Child

M is on her way to college today, halfway to her destination by now. I will miss her, I know. Air travel has been with us for so long that we take it for granted, standing in line and boarding our flights as easily as earlier generations took the train. My parents remembered the invention of air travel.

Tuesday's Child according to an old rhyme, is "full of grace". That refers to the person born on a Tuesday. I wish some of that grace to M as she travels to college today. No longer a girl and for the most part a young woman, she is still technically a teenager.

We require far more maturity from our young people today. It is assumed that they, or at least most of them, will go away from home for college. My mother lived "on campus" when she attended nursing school in the 1920's. She was in walking distance of going home for Sunday dinner with her family. My father attended college in his home town, living at home the whole time. Military service took him away from home during World War II. I lived at home until graduate school called me to leave and go relatively far away.

Today the cell phone keeps everyone connected through calls and text messaging. Email fills up our time--answering it and sending it. We are "connected" even though far away.

What will M and her generation be looking at as new and taken for granted technologies when they send their children off to college in about thirty years? When they look back, as I am at sixty?

This is an exciting time for M and some of her excitement has rubbed off on me and blessed me with shared enthusiasm. She is a blessing and gift in my life. I wish her joy in learning, Godspeed and Good Luck in all the new things that soon will be comfortable, no longer new aspects of her college life.

Just as the four years of her time in high school flew by the next four years will fly too. May they fly straight and fly true and her wings be strong, as I know her heart is.

Have fun, be safe, I miss you, dear M.