I know May is always a ridiculously hectic month, but someone seems to have hit the fast forward button even more than usual this year.
My family's usual combination of baseball, track, lots of work to do and spring ailments hit with a fury in 2016.
But that's OK, because when I talk to my older parent friends, they say it's really weird when the kids leave and you're no longer hauling them to practice!
This seems to have been compounded by our freaky spring weather this year.
At least the snowstorms seem to have abated, but I keep thinking it's time to put the winter gear away. Then it gets cold and rainy again, and I'm grapping my boots and jackets to head out the door. I did wear my flip-flops this week, trying to pretend it was actually May, instead of feeling like it's March.
Attending and covering BHS graduation on Sunday highlighted this combination of weird weather and time warp. I've been around Bayfield and Ignacio long enough that I remember some of the seniors when they were little kids. Seeing their smiling little baby and preschool pictures during the slide show, then their grown-up looking countenances, makes me a bit nostalgic. My kids are approaching this milestone more quickly than I want to admit.
Then the clouds that were threatening to rain all morning were unleashed during the ceremony, and in a cavernous gym, boy you can tell when it's raining hard outside.
The storm blew through, and as the grads and their families exited the gym, we had that beautiful rainstorm smell and clear mountain air, so it was a lovely day for commencement.
Commence...to start. These bright graduates have so much potential, so much energy, they're so young, sometimes I envy them. But looking back on those trying years of growing up, I think I'll just try to stay satisfied with my middle-aged mom-wife-editor life.
Driving my big kid home from practice this week, he thanked my husband and me for making it to his meets this year.
Little guy still looks at us proudly when he makes a good catch.
These are the moments that make years of tough parenthood worth it.
I hope the Class of 2016 can appreciate their hectic lives, and I hope their parents are proud of their accomplishments. They're a good group of kids, and I hope they remember their hometown as they go into out into the world. I hope they change the world for the better.
Thanks for reading.
