On a beautiful island day I will climb into the car for the four hour drive to Athens. My baby girl graduates from college tomorrow. It all happened so quickly. She was just born yesterday. Or so it seems.
She is named after a line from the Rolling Stones "You Can't Always Get what you want." "I went down to the Chelsea drug store ..." Because she was born on Tybee Island the spelling had to have "SEA" in her name and we were very insistent on the birth certificate about this.
And there's no question she's beach girl! I've logged more time sitting in the sand with her than I have anybody else in the world (and that's saying a lot!). Before she could walk I'd sling her on my shoulders and we'd top the crosswalk on 10th Street and find our spot. She'd roll around in the sand as I sat there as we basked in the sunshine with the waves singing to us.
This continued until she went to the University of Georgia.
Before she did, we went diving in the Keys, called the Vatican one night while we were there, and ... became friends as adults.
I'd see her a lot during football season but then not so much throughout the rest of the year. Some in the summer, but she was off creating her own life. She's engaged and the funniest thing is that her fiancee Sam goes to Georgia Tech and she is moving there in a few weeks. I asked if she would be hanging UGA flags as curtains in windows but Sam had already anticipated such a move and told her no.
I think that she'll do it anyway.
Conventionality is not a family trait.
It's an interesting point of life when you understand that all of your children are grown. How did this happen? I am much too young to have grown children.
Nevertheless ...
She remains fun to watch. She always has been. I would sit late into the night watching her sleep in her crib with her entire head cradled in my hand. She served me a thousand cups of imaginary tea. Together we overcame Jellyfish (though she remains scared by the whole thing). The travel bug got passed on and she lived in Italy for a while and is feverishly planning a trip to Greece. And the girl can throw a football with a perfect spiral (just ask Ken Wade who she hit squarely in the face one day when he told her that girls can't thrown).
Tonight we'll gather for dinner in Athens and celebrate all of the things that have been.
Then tomorrow, I sit and watch her march across a stage and into her life.
I love you baby.
Keep doing it the way that you've been doing it.
