I’m feeling a little blue tonight. I know I’ve written about the exciting changes you get to face as your kids grow up, and I’ve said how those changes are new chapters to embrace. And I still believe all that. However, that doesn’t make the end of one chapter any less sad.

When one chapter ends and the next begins, we have to adapt. That isn’t always easy. It’s natural at those stages to reminisce and reflect fondly over the memories that got you to this new chapter. I can tell you that will involve a few tears.

Tonight, I’m on the threshold of some more of those new chapters, so tonight I’m feeling a little blue that one set of chapters will be ending, but that doesn’t stop me from looking forward to the new chapters that await us.

Nic left today to begin her last choir tour with the Voices of Appalachia, the Alice Lloyd College choir. That means several things. Not only is this her last choir tour, it’s her last college spring break. Her last semester of undergrad is half over. In eight short weeks, my daughter will be a college graduate. About eight weeks after that, she’ll begin grad school at Sullivan University. Chapters end, and chapters begin. I’m grateful for the experiences she has had at ALC, and the choir tour has been one of the best. She’s been blessed to see a lot of the United States with the choir, and I’m sure the choir has blessed lots of folks with their performances. So, tonight, I’m praying for a safe tour and for more blessings, both for the choir members and their audiences. To the seniors on the tour, I hope they have a blast and make many great memories. In just a few short weeks, you’ll be college graduates ready to enter the real world. Don’t rush it; it’ll be here soon enough. Those of us blessed to be your parents realize this better than you do.

Tomorrow, I’ll be taking Cody to UK for Merit Weekend, which allows him to complete early preregistration for his classes next fall. This will be the third child I’ve taken to UK for registration, so I know the drill and the sessions we’ll sit through. The thing is this time it’s my baby. In seven short weeks, my baby will be graduating from high school. I know this is how life works. You have kids, and they grow up. And I’ve enjoyed every minute of their growing up. But I also know letting them go is the absolute hardest thing you’ll ever do in your life. I know how hard it is to drop your kid off at college. I’ve done it three times already. So I know what to expect in August; it’ll be very similar to last summer when I left him at Murray State University for Governor’s Scholars for five weeks. And even though college is different, and I won’t have to go weeks without seeing him, and he will be home every weekend, that day will be a hard day because it will mean that my baby is officially all grown up.

Tomorrow is the beginning of that chapter. Some could say his applying to college and being accepted were the beginning, but he’s applied to several and been accepted to all of them. Going through registration at the college he’s chosen to attend makes it all a little more official; one chapter is officially about to close and another is officially about to begin. So while I sit through those parent sessions for the third time tomorrow (ALC didn’t do registration quite the way UK does, so the experience with Nic was different), I will try my best not to break down in tears, though I can’t make any promises.

When we come back home on Saturday evening, Cody will have an official college schedule. We’ll finish up the last seven weeks of his high school career, and I’ll try not to spend too much time thinking about going to work in the fall and for the first time in twenty-two years I’ll be driving in by myself, without even one kid in the car.

Time flies by. Take the time to enjoy it so that when one chapter ends and that next one begins, you’ll have plenty of memories to ease the transition.