“Your sister spent about 90 minutes at the hair salon getting ready for the prom.”
“Yeah? What does that mean?”
“It means things are changing and if you are smart you’ll tell her that hair looks nice because it does and it is the right thing to do, sister or not.”
Some hours after the salon and who knows what kind of preparation here at the house I drove over to a local park and watched my baby girl and an assortment of teens take pictures.
Several of the fathers introduced themselves and we made small talk, congratulated each other and asked the silly question we all know the answer to.
“Where did the time go?”
****
I watched my daughter talk the other girls and saw them do all those things women do when they are dressed up for a night on the town.
Watched them look each other over, compliment each other and help make little adjustments as needed.
Remembered watching my daughter watch her mother and grandmothers and imitate them and then reminded her to drive safely.
We left and then they went off to dinner and then headed off to the Prom or so the text said.
“Have fun and be safe.”
“Thanks, I will” came the reply.
She’ll be back some time on Sunday but I imagine I won’t go to sleep before 2 just in case. Probably a good thing that I am a night owl.
And so begins the final stretch of high school and her mad dash towards college and the future. I’ll be a part of it, but not like I have been.
She’ll start taking on the majority of the responsibility for figuring out where she will sail her ship. That’s the way it should be and proof that we did a good job raising her, but damn…it went fast.
