333 Days

333 Days till departure

Tonight, you said that you think Nightmare on Elm Street is funny. It suddenly occurred to me that I cannot think of a single time you have ever told me that you were scared. I was waxing on in my head about how remarkable it must be to not be afraid of anything and then I remembered, of wait, you are scared of turkeys.

334 Days

334 Days till departure 

Let me start off by saying, I am not dying. I am stating that fact not for you, but for me, because I have just spent the last 40 minutes trying to think about something to write, and when I tried to come up with a good writing prompt for myself, I asked myself what I would want to make sure I told you if I knew I was dying. As you know, my imagination and my hypochondria are strong and before I knew what was happening, I was crying. I was crying not because I was going to die (which I am not going to do) but because I couldn’t think of any brilliant words of wisdom to impart. Then I was struck by inspiration and I got all excited to share with you my final piece advice (again, not my final, I am totally alive and well) and I got all excited at how brilliant today’s journal was going to be. I came over to where my computer was and got ready to write when I realized that what I was about to say was 100% ridiculous and 100% not what I would want my last piece of advice to you to be (for the record it had something to do with buying new underwear when the elastic gives out.) This caused me to start laughing at myself which triggered a coughing fit, because I still haven’t been able to get rid of my cough, which then made me start thinking that maybe I had tuberculosis, which could cause me to die, but not really because I have had a TB shot, though maybe it is time for a booster. Which has now got me worried that people are going to start calling me Typhoid Mary. Which I would not like to be called because as you know if I was going to get a new name it would be Sunny. I would keep writing to you tonight but unfortunately I have to go and google if Typhoid and TB are the same, just in case I contract either. 

335 Days

335 Days till departure

Tonight, we were coming home from a lovely family visit, and you started to fall asleep in the car. God, I am going to miss family drives where you fall asleep in the car. 

 

Most people don’t know that I had hyperemesis gravidarum when I was pregnant with you. To my knowledge there is still no information on what causes this, but I used to hypothesize that it was because you were so active. You never slept. Not when I was pregnant with you, and not for the first year of your life. The only time you would sleep was when we were in the car. 

Watching you sleep in the car was one of my favorite things when you were a baby. Mostly it was because I would finally be able to take a break, but also it was because asleep, you were finally still enough where I could just look at you. You as a sleeping infant, is no different than you are as a sleeping young adult; absolutely perfect!

336 Days

336 Days till departure

I want to let the world know that you have an amazing set of friends. One of the things I recently realized is that I don’t only have to let go of you but I also have to let go of all of my surrogate children. 

I have had the true pleasure of working in the school department and getting to see these kids in a setting that most of their families don't get to experience. It is one of the greatest privileges to be able to see so many young people growing into themselves. The future is so bright in all of your capable hands.

337 Days

337 Days till departure.

I forgot to write last night but that was because I was so tired. You were too, as we had been traveling and our plane was delayed. As we all were upset about the delay and trying to figure out a reasonable time to get up and get going in the morning, you were stressing about making it to school on time, because you had an obligation to run your club which meets too early and too often (that is my opinion not yours). Even though you were only going to get less than four hours of sleep, even though I was telling you to skip your club, even though there are other people who could cover for your absence, you still insisted on fulfilling your obligation. Not only did you fulfill that obligation (though I think you were a few minutes late) you also scheduled yourself to work an evening shift at your second job, which you went to after putting in a full day of school and three hours of after school rehearsal.

Though I admire your work ethic and your commitment to fulfill your obligations, I want you to always remember that we can never get back time, so spend it wisely. Take the time to rest so that you can be fully present in every moment; take the time to enjoy your tasks, so they don't become a burden; and finally, take the time to always talk to your mother, because no one loves you more than she does.

339 Days

339 Days till departure 

Youism that occurred today.  

1. Celebrating eating dinner at 5:30. 

2. Changing the settings to Spanish so that only you understand what is being said. 

3. Checking several times to be assured that your outfit is appropriate. 

4. Having a complete giggle fit about nothing. 

5. Glaring at your sibling.

340 Days

340 Days 

Your sibling says you are going to get a big head from all the glowing praise I am heaping on you. I tried to explain that this is more about me than you, but you know how siblings are. So to show her that I am not completely unreasonable about you I am going to share some things that are not so glowing. You have split ends, you have an irrational fear of turkeys, you are grumpy if you do not have caffeine, and you never clean up after yourself.