I remember the day clearly. I followed closely behind the school bus that carried my first born to her first day of school. I watched from outside the fenced-in yard as she reached into her brand new backpack for a snack, unhinged the container and nervously dropped all of her grapes onto the ground. I watched as she hesitantly got in line when the school bell rang and I watched her make her first steps towards her independent life...or so I thought. She still came home to me everyday. I still helped her with her homework, bandaged her boo-boo's, enjoyed dinner-time talks and tucked her in at night. That was 14 years ago. In exactly 4 days, I will be packing up that same child, loading all of her belonging into the car, driving her to University and making the drive back home without her. I will be leaving her there. For the first time in her life, she will be living on her own, away from the family home and away from me. And as crazy as this sounds, I don't think I've really given that much thought. I've been too busy getting her ready for this new chapter in her life. I've been too busy enrolling her in her classes, figuring out tuition and meal plans and shopping for bedding sets and hangers and shower caddys. I'm preparing her for her next steps. Preparing her for this very exciting phase. Preparing her for her first official independent life away from home. I haven't prepared me. The reality of it hasn't quite hit me yet. I haven't given much thought to what it will be like to walk away from her in 4 days time. And I won't. Aug 30th is going to be a great day. An exciting day. A highly anticipated day. It's going to be a day of exciting new beginnings and bittersweet endings. Wish me luck.