The High School Senior Slide

We called it Castle Park.

I’m told April just ended. Which means it’s now spring. Which means, provided inertia doesn’t get tariffed and the world keeps spinning, May will now rush by.

Which means all the padding of so many protective months buffering me from my daughter’s high school graduation are slipping away.

I knew it would be this way. I knew the big fat luxury I felt in August of a whole school year ahead was counterfeit, a knock-off good fooling me into thinking I had something tangible and retainable, something I could bank on.

But one thing I’ve learned is that wondering where Time went does nothing to slow it down. Time doesn’t sit on the side of the road to let you and your friend Emotions catch up. It just jack-rabbits right past you both, pick-pocketing the Present from you as it goes by.

So I try to stay focused on right now. Right now, my daughter still lives in our house, still commutes to school in the city in flip flops, still gets home from school and, at some point before bed, usually right before I am going to bed, details her day to me, the tests she says she’s not ready for, shifting Prom plans, funny things she heard.

Right now, my daughter’s friends still come in and out of our house, stopping by, hanging out or sleeping over. My daughter still goes in to say goodnight to her younger brother…