Today as you are reading this (well, really, today as this is being auto-published), Nighean Dhonn is leaving for college.
She is driving up with her sister Nighean Bhan. The drive would make for a very solid one day drive; they are splitting it into two. The Ravishing Mrs. TB is flying up to meet them there (and bringing even more stuff with her), where they will connect and then get Nighean Dhonn set up in her dorm room for the school year. She and Nighean Bhan will fly back on Saturday (beating me to the airport returning from my trip by about 10 minutes), where we will all drive home together.
And just like that, everything changes.
It is turning out to be another milestone in a number of ways. Not only is Nighean Dhonn effectively moving on to the next phase of life (although New Home may still serve as "home", it will only really be for vacations and Summer), Nighean Bhan starts her Master's program the following Monday (Her words: "It seems like it is going to be a lot"). And to be fair, even this hiking trip is sort of a holdover from before Hammerfall 2.0, plans made on a schedule that does not really exist anymore at this point, for a place (The Ranch) that is in a short term transition.
Nighean Dhonn is, as you can imagine, a little nervous (I am sure she will be fine). She has a single dorm room, of which I had no idea such things existed - because if they had when I was in school, I would have completely gotten one. She already has her classes for the semester, and at least one - the equivalent of "Latin 101" makes me very jealous indeed.
With Nighean Dhonn gone and Nighean Bhan effectively in college all over again, it largely be down to The Ravishing Mrs. TB and myself. Which, in itself is a bit of a change not only for the fact that it will largely be the two of us alone, but that it be an odd schedule: I with Iaijutsu class/work 5 nights a week, her with her travel group/friends two-three nights a week. We have already had the experience of ships passing in the night; I am not sure how more or less pronounced that will become.
But that is the future.
Now, we get to celebrate as Nighean Dhonn adventures off to the next phase of her life, even if in the quiet moments we mourn the fact that another phase has come to a close.
It does make me wonder: how can a thing simultaneously seem to have taken years and yet an instant?
Time that thing that keeps everything from happening at once.
ReplyDeleteBe careful friends about "Ships passing in the night " Repetition creates routine, then Habits then TIME passes as does your loving relationship.
Always feed the flowers, lest they fade away.
Michael
It has been a pretty busy Summer and there has been a lot going on. A lot changing, too, all at once. Whether or not I am ready, a new sort of normal is here.
Delete"How can a thing simultaneously seem to have taken years and yet an instant?" That's the mystery of parenthood!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to Nighean Dhonn, for her milestone achievement. I have no doubt she'll do very well. Adjustments will be made! For everyone. :)
Leigh, The Book of Face helpfully keeps sending me photos of "8 years ago, 5 years ago" - and it seems like such a different time and place.
DeleteThank you for the congratulations on her behalf. She has worked very hard to get here and I, too, have no doubt she will do nothing but very well.
My daughter has already informed me that she will be getting a single dorm room next year. I told her to go for it if she can because like you, I would have done so had I had the option. Instead, I did the next best thing and specifically requested my neighbor's oldest boy, someone I never hung out with but at least knew who he was and who his folks were.
ReplyDeleteEd, my first dorm mate was the random choice - which was okay, but I would have taken a single room in a heartbeat. In retrospect, I wonder if that would have changed how I handled that first semester of college and perhaps I might have stayed there.
DeleteThus life, and the definition of Wilder Manor in just a year.
ReplyDeleteJohn, it creeps up on us before we know it. Enjoy the time.
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