Two years ago my first born left for college. On her graduation party, I was asked to do the customary but impossible deed of encapsulating 18 years of mothering in roughly 18 minutes.
While she spoke with passion of all that I have taught and tutored her-here are my 18 lessons that I have learnt from her on this most rewarding yet uncertain path of parenting:
1) It is possible to love someone more than yourself. Love descends. You will never love me as much as I love you and its Okay.
2) It is possible to be humbled by your children. I have always been complemented for my sense of humor and timing but your straight faced reaction to so many of my jokes, make me feel I have work to do.
3) It is possible to relive life and be reinvigorated with experiences that one had thought of “not again.”
4) It is possible to sleep and wake up at hours that can make other family members wonder if we exist in the same timezone.
5) Its a reality that with a closet full of clothes, the one enduring refrain in life every morning is-“I don’t have anything to wear.”
6) Cleaning a room is an optional exercise on a monthly basis.
7) It is possible to declare with a straight face, “I am tired.” after 12 hours of sleep.
8) It is possible to take multi tasking to new frontiers.
9) It is possible to argue the merits of unending text time with one and all-listening or otherwise.
10) It is possible to awe your parents, grandparents and siblings with achievements and maturity beyond your age.
11) It is possible to take frustrations in your stride and carry on because there is a tomorrow.
12) It is possible to halt arguments when the possibility of convincing another is not worth your time, effort or energy.
13) It is possible to stand upright for your values and beliefs amidst the staunchest counter forces.
14) It is possible to be a great role model for your sister while secretly wishing she is not so annoying.
15) Patience is a virtue worth practicing.
16) It is possible for me to feel abundant gratitude for the gift that you are.
17) It is possible to dream of utopia.
18) It is possible to begin missing someone just from the anticipation of someone going away.