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Like millions of other parents, my wife and I sent our daughter
off for the first day of school Tuesday. A melancholy mood set in, as I
motored east towards Caledonia. This was the tenth “first day of
school” for Megan. It just doesn’t seem possible that is was nine years
ago, Sept. 1999, when Karla and I watched our little girl, her brown
hair in two long braids, a brand new blue denim skirt, matching blue
and white top, white tennis shoes, and a Barney backpack, step onto the
school bus for the trip from Canton to Mabel and her first day of
kindergarten.
Fast-forward nine years, and our little girl has blossomed into a tall,
long-legged young lady, who towers over her mother, and now looks me
straight in the eyes. Where did that time go?
My father once told me time is like the sand in an hour glass. The
older one gets the larger the hole becomes, and the faster the sand
flows. It’s amazing just how true that is.
Half a lifetime ago, when I served as a groomsman or usher for a number
of my high school and college buddies when they “tied the knot,” I
wondered why the parents of the bride usually teared up during the
wedding ceremony. I was in my early 20’s and had my whole life in front
of me. What did I know?
During the next decade, while attending the weddings of my three
sisters, I watched the tears well up in my parents’ eyes, as they
realized their little girls had grown up. Even though I was still
footloose and single, I started to understand the emotions they were
feeling.
In the past three years, two of my sisters’ daughters married. And once
again I witnessed the emotions displayed by not only the mother and
father of the brides, but also their grandparents, and some of their
aunts and uncles.
I’ve always tried to portray this persona of being unemotional,
especially when it comes to sad or touching occasions. Tough guys don’t
cry, right? But I have to admit when Megan served as a bridesmaid for
one of her cousins, and stood up in front of that large church, with a
long, flowing bridesmaid dress, tears were rolling down my cheeks. I
quickly started messing with my eyes, pretending one of my contact
lenses was bothering me. I guess there are some advantages for wearing
contacts.
My wife and I were married 10 years before we were blessed with our one
and only child. I don’t know if it’s any easier for parents of four or
five children to see them grow up, rather than parents with just one.
Do the first couple kids blaze the trail, help drain the tear pool,
season the emotions, and toughen the heart strings?
I do a lot of thinking on my 30 minute commute each day. Sometimes I
try to plan my busy day. Other times I replay the Minnesota Twins game
I’ve watched the night before and try to figure out what went wrong
when they lose, or what they did right when they win.
But today, as I replayed Megan’s first “first day of school,” and
wondered where the past nine years had gone, I decided I needed to
spend more time cherishing the past, enjoying the present, and looking
forward to the future.
Sometimes a melancholy moment can be an uplifting experience.
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