My twin girls are graduating from high school in a few weeks.
We noted when they were born that they would be the Class of 2018.
Lucy is on the left & Willa on the right—one hour old.
FLEDGE verb (Merriam Webster)
1: to rear until ready for flight or independent activity
This definition of fledge, makes the process sound so simple, so animal. I’m finding that this process is not so simple and requires some emotional skills far beyond natural animal instincts. A few questions keep coming up for me.
What do I need to let go of now?
What’s at stake by holding on to my girls too tightly? Too loosely?
What relationships do I desire moving forward?
Who am I when I no longer have kids at home?
I’m allowing myself to grieve the end of this stage of family life.
I know I won’t hang out in this emotional space forever.
If I stuff these feelings, they’ll leak out in remarkably weird ways.
Perhaps even weirder than usual lately.
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Congratulations to fledglings throughout the land.
Happy Graduation 2018!
My twin daughters are graduating from high school on Thursday, June 14th at 10am and nostalgia along with a handful of other complex and occasionally irrational emotions are settling into my midlife psyche. For so long photographing my girls was my muse, something creative I could do all the time. However, as they got older (and had cameras in their pockets) I photographed them less frequently together. I have plenty of travel and birthday photos, but I can see now as the years progressed, they increasingly grew into their individuality, less of a unit and I followed their lead. Now, every photo has to be “approved” which I can understand for a 17-year-old coming-of-age in this era and about to graduate from high school.
