My Senior

No senior would choose to miss out on painting senior parking spots, Homecoming, football games, and walking the halls of her high school as the most upper of upper-class-men. This beauty has missed out, and somehow kept her smile.

Thankfully, "attending" her high school online gives her a break from crowded high school halls and other overwhelm and she can buckle down from her bed to get this year done. That's her mindset, anyway. She is not without a tender heart, but she's accepted that this pandemic has taken something away and her lack of sentimentality has helped ME keep my own emotional cool. Somehow existing in our own pandemic bubble here at home probably also prevents me from being too weepy. Still, when I imagine this smile under a mortar board in a re-creation of a graduation, the lump in the throat comes. 

Her bucket is filled by friends, working part time, dancing in an awesome dance studio's company, and trying to commit to vegetarianism. She and her sister get along really well some of the time. She loves calling Molly a barrel and making zucchini bread. She's hilarious and fun to watch Bachelorette with. She has a good head on her shoulders. She just missed being able to vote in this election but is as glued to the TV as we are, stressed by some of her classmate's loyalty to our current leader.  We're having some really awesome honest communication lately. The maturity made between freshman and senior year? Wow. 

We got these awesome senior pictures taken mid-August, wear our class of 2021 apparel with pride. I ordered her cap, gown and tassel just this week, though we don't know what her graduation will look like. She's taking the SAT in one of the only rare locations this weekend, finishing her college essay in preparation for about 10 applications, few of them in state! 

We were in Black Butte a few weekends ago and we did a "LOVE STORM," brainstorming about her, telling awesome stories about her, remembering her as a little person. I went to my blog and kept sending her posts ("Mooommm"). In one, she had her hands full of slugs, which reminded her she loves nature and animals and she has considered Veterinary Science. Right now her environmental science class is her favorite. I secretly hope her path leads her toward a future saving our environment. Nursing is a potential path. She'd be great-she's good with people and her dry sense of humor would delight patients and she's not irked by blood. She's also thought about being a therapist. 

Oh these days, they dwindle. Oh, her launch, it looms......