Lasts

The senior year of high school is a cruel joke. It's a cruel joke on my roommate and I because when we were juniors of high school we fell in love with freshmen. And four years later, they are seniors. This is the last time we will watch them play their first football game of the season. This is the last time we will see them do anything as children. This year. This is their last year of being children. And it makes me really sad to think that.

I now know how a parent feels to watch their child graduate and move on. Though we have been part of their lives for only 4 years, they've changed so much. They've evolved. Honestly, you must admit that freshmen are really just babies. They don't have personalities or distinguishing features. But they develop. They make bad decisions and you love them all the more for it because they're getting closer. They're on the cusp.

It's August. And my roommate and I have to begin a year-long process of letting go of our high schoolers. Next year they will be freshmen again. Maybe we will love them again. Maybe we and they have changed so much over the last four years that we do not recognize each other in that new light.

And I know that each day we, my roommate and I, drive back to our apartment from home, we will cry. We will cry because it will be that much longer until the next time we see them.

This post has been an unfortunate occurrence because I have now written myself into such a sadness that I don't think I can read my assignments for tomorrow.