Broad Strokes

My goals this week are simple, and extremely complicated.

Goal number one is getting The Princess off to college on Saturday. There are a ton of things that need to be done, despite this being her second year. I would have thought the list of things would get smaller, but so far, it hasn’t. I say “a ton” because I don’t actually know how many things are on the list. All I know is that it keeps growing. 

Normally, I live by my to-do list. Nothing happens that isn’t on my list, and I can guarantee that if it is on the list, I’ll do it. My life exists because of that list. But you know what else exists? Stress, and lots of it. 

The Princess successfully completed her first year of college. She managed to get to classes on time, get good grades, do whatever else she needed to do, and all without any major mishaps. Mistakes are expected, but nothing that she—and we—couldn’t easily recover from. 

So I decided to leave the to-do list to her. Sure, I have a few things I need her to make sure to complete before she leaves—like her camp laundry, which is endless and might actually be alive. But the rest is up to her. We are leaving at seven in the morning, with her in the car, and whatever ends up in the car with us. And if it gets left behind, well, then it will be put on my to-do list, and whenever I get to it, I get to it. And if she has to go a semester without a floor lamp, I’m confident she’ll survive—worst case, I’ll tell her, “Back in my day, we didn’t have floor lamps. We sat in the dark and were happy.” J

Goal number two is keeping Banana Girl safe. She just got her driver’s license and, um, she’s driving. Like on the road, with the rest of you. She’s actually good and if I weren’t her mother, I’d say I was completely comfortable driving on the same roads as her. But I am her mother, so I make her text. Often. Just not while she’s driving. 

I’m having her drive locally as much as possible before school starts, getting her used to texting every time that gear goes into “park” and practicing the useless Lamaze exercises that didn’t do diddly during labor, but might keep me upright as she pulls out of the driveway. 

Yeah, her to-do list for the rest of the summer is huge, with band, summer homework and college applications. But all of those things are up to her right now. For the moment, I’m focusing on her driving and getting her from point A to point B in one piece. She’s going to have to handle the rest of it.

And if I survive until next week, then maybe I’ll peek at my own massive to-do list. Or not.