Thursday, May 28, 2015

Empty Nest Dreaming?

 
My favorite thing about life, my life specifically but life in general, is that it is really a series of "lives" strung together, each with it's own goals, dreams, plans, aspirations, and outcomes.  Each leading to another "life" upon conclusion. I look back at the high school me, and the excitement surrounding graduation, choosing a college, and leaving home.  Then the college me learning who I was as an adult and what I wanted to do professionally.  The young adult me, starting a career, and then deciding that although I loved it I loved marriage and even kids more.  Then the mommy me raising babies, and putting kids in school only to decide that I wanted something different for them, pulling the oldest out of school and homeschooling them both from that point on.  Deciding in the midst of that that Michigan winters weren't to my, or my husband's liking, and moving 900 miles to the coastal South without a job for either of us, our home in Michigan still on the market.  Impetuous, to say the least but what is life if you don't chase your dreams?
 
Currently I am at that sweet point when I sense one version of me coming to a close, as a glimpse of another is just over the horizon.  I've been married for almost 21 years, mid-life is upon me and with it children who are beginning to take their first steps into life on their own. We've led an unconventional life.  Never afraid to look at the path most take and go in the opposite direction. Our life, for all but the first year of marriage, has been centered around raising a family and all that it entails. Our oldest will be a Jr. in college in the fall, and our youngest a sophomore in high school. We will be empty nesters in less than three years. It's time to plan what life will be like when we're on our own, and that, to me, is exciting!
 
With the empty nest looming the wanderlust, and planning/dreaming has begun in earnest.  The desire to ignore what society says we should do ,and do it our way, is a strong as ever.  It's a joyful time, even as it is a bit sad.  I will miss the child rearing years, and most of all I will miss the wonderful girls I have raised to be my best friends.  They are leaving, which is a sign that I did my job well.  I shed a tear and look forward to the next step.  What a wild ride life is, and how fun it will be to chronicle it all here on this blog.