Your thoughts are much more about whether you will survive the next 2 days with this entirely dependent new human you are supposed to know what to do with.
Surprisingly soon in the life of the human, a person enters your life and wants to discuss a Registered Education Saving Plan. If you are able you sign up the brand new human for lofty future goals.
When said child is 3 you wonder if they will actually live to realise the funds being set aside.
Then they hit school and occasionally, when parentally expedient, you remind said child that studies are important and money is being saved and opportunities should not be squandered (aka do your damn dictee).
Highschool starts out and once Grade 9 and the mean girls and the awkward boys have been survived the words "Post Secondary" start to appear in your vocabulary.
While you nightly pray they say "No" when necessary and pay the slightest attention to school work ...they start to dream dreams of spending their RESP. You possibly plead with higher powers that it will be close to home...like a bus ride away.
And then suddenly there are University brochures on the kitchen counter and your daughter has carefully calculated the exact mark in each subject she needs to attain her University of choice and while the parents hold their collective breath she not only gets into said University but wins a scholarship. A feat made utterly surprising by her complete lack of doing homework for 12 years of schooling.
That feat was achieved for Miss Lindsay B a little over 4 years ago.
Tonight at 8pm after delivering her first solo presentation she will officially have a BA.Psych degree from the University of Victoria!!!
To say we are proud is an understatement. Of course for the way she has taken on her studies and done the work and passed the stats course and aced the psych and socio courses..... so proud.
But so much more than that we are proud of how she launched into the world and figured it out and grew up and matured and is a person who we absolutely adore and love being around.
She navigated residence life with gusto - our introvert pushed herself hard to connect and join clubs and teams and she found some people who will be forever friends. She had a ball, learned how to haul laundry up three flights of stairs, how to do the bus-ferry-bus routine to get home, how to manage cafeteria food and pull pranks (and other things we delightfully know nothing about!)
And after that she opted to live alone in her first little apartment. Boy that was a hard year... loneliness, illness, tequila-gate... she figured it all out out with a little help from home. And a certain boy arrived on the scene on St. Patrick's Day at a party... of course!
3rd year and a whack-a-doodle land lady and a tiny shared suite. Surf club in Tofino and figuring out dating and sharing space again.
4th year - the best - a house with friends - best friends - lovely and loving friends and so many hikes and meals together and sharing life . Another oddball land lady well handled by mature girls who fought for their rights and won the day.
And all the while working at a child care centre many many shifts a week as an Educator, doing good and important work in sometimes trying circumstances. While that RESP covered tuition she mainly worked to pay the rest with only a little financial help. Cooking fantastic meals, doing yoga and going to the gym. She traveled overseas with us and managed all the emotions of that trip.
And now - this final semester - living with that Boy from 2nd year who we have all grown to love - in a beautiful apartment with a view of the ocean. 3 final courses - now DONE.
It's been an honour to watch her journey and we are sailing over to celebrate this weekend. Not just the degree but all the living and learning she has done.
Miss Lou... we love you to the moon and back and forever.
Congratulations !
Mom and Dad
xoxoxo