As I get ready to move into college this weekend and start a new exciting chapter of my life, I realize like most of our parents mine will cry and there will be hard goodbyes. They will be reluctant to leave the dorm and offer extra help just to postpone the whole thing. For most of us it will be the fist time our parents will have to let go and trust that they have done everything they could to prepare us for these moments. Personally saying goodbye has never been easy for me whether it was at the end of time spent with friends or at a family occasion. I perceive goodbyes to be the end of something but as I am stepping away from a chapter of my life I can begin to see it is just a see you later. Saying good bye does not mean a finale; it means the end of one paragraph in an amazing book. Therefore as I say goodbye to my daily life at home, I want to leave my mother with a message. This poem is a reflection on our relationship through the years and how at the end of every day I knew a good bye was just a see you later.

Like any child,

The relationship began before I was even born,

There was love and comfort,

Just like now only in a different sort of way.

As a little child,

She played tea parties and dress up with me,

Taught me valuable lessons,

Such as how to walk

And how to talk.

Older but still growing,

There she was with me and the places we went:
Disney, dance class, school, picnic, mystic, the library, church, and my home.

I was disciplined but loved with a big heart and arms,

I learned how to grow and stand strong.

A teenager now,

There are those days where we have disagreements

And there are those days when we have connecting minds.

Yet she there still helping and cheering me on,

And tries to make me a better person each day.

Now on the verge;

Standing at the crossroads of my life.

Heading to college leaving one side,

Trusting in what lies ahead of me on the other.

She is sitting in the kitchen learning to let her babies fly

Waiting to watch me soar and discover my wings.