A Moment in Time: Me and My Guy

Yesterday, my son Jack officially graduated 8th grade. And what a day it was! 

It was filled with many emotions. You know, the usual wild feelings that go along with major transitions like these. If you’re lucky enough, you can use a moment in time like this to take a step back from the everyday grind and see more clearly the emotional, social, and intellectual state of your kid.

It’s when you realize that so much of parenting is about life in general. It’s about process and the eternal search for happiness, comfort, and love—it’s about pushing ourselves and each other to be the best people we each can be.

It’s a time when you can’t deny the beauty and the joy in just how far your child has come as he is awarded, “Student of the Year.” It’s a time to give yourself permission to yourself to say, “Whoa. This has been a wild journey. We’re all doing the best we can, and we’re doing a pretty good job.”

It’s when you recognize that your child has far exceeded any and all of your expectations. It’s when you consciously get rid of the false, fearful, anxious words and emotions that have looped in your head and your heart his whole life prior that you realize how different things are now than what you were told they would be.

It’s when you deliberately scan your environments and look in awe at the people around you and your circle of support. It’s tremendous gratitude for your supportive family, friends, neighbors, community, therapists, teachers, doctors, specialists, coworkers, and all the people along the way who accepted your differences when you couldn’t.

It’s letting your guard down and your heart overflow with joy and love because your kid is turning out to be an amazing, caring, and warm person,who now can also write every letter in the alphabet—go Jack!

But it’s also the moment you realize you’ve now experienced enough as a parent of a child with involved needs to know that you will need to draw on these successes in the future when those negative thoughts start to play again. You find comfort in the unknown and trust that the future will be better than you ever thought it would be.