Five Years Ago: I Never Knew the Meaning of “They grow up so fast.”

June 26, 2009

My cap and gown still hang in the hall coat closet in a garment bag. My pictures are still in a shoebox in my bedroom closet. My diploma is neatly tucked away on a shelf in the computer room. And not once have I thought about any of them in the last five years. I have been more consumed with life itself-college and my daughter… but today, today I thought back to it all.

I thought about the blue and gold colors and the gymnasium where the ceremony happened. I thought about walking up to the stage to receive my honors for graduating from high school. I must say, I am proud of myself. I am not trying to have a big ego- but I think when one graduates, there is an inner voice that starts to throw a party. I was proud of myself- especially since my senior year and my junior year too were not the best ones of my life. I didn’t have much to be proud of back then and this joyous day was a break in my black hole- the light at the end of the tunnel so they say.

But today, June 26, today I was shocked. I grew up hearing adults say, “They grow up so fast.” I never understood it. Then today, I got a text message from an old high school friend. She had her second baby today at 4:50 p.m. - Alexis LeAnne. All I remember thinking is, how good it was that she had her baby today rather than yesterday. “No one wants to have a baby on the day Michael Jackson died. That would be horrible.” That is all I remember thinking, and then my mom said it too. I guess with the week being filled with celebrity deaths (Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson), I suppose all my days kind of just blurred together as I was attached to watching the news and checking all the updates on their deaths, memorials, funerals and legacies on sites like People.com, CNN and ET Online.

June 26^th, it never hit me that today as all my graduation memories faded to the back of my mind over the years, that today was the five-year mark that I graduated. Five years ago, I put on the cap and gown, and five years ago, I received that diploma while my classmates and I all went our separate directions. Five years ago, I never knew the meaning of “They grow up so fast.” But that was five years ago. Today, I have a biological son who will be five in a month and a beautiful daughter who will be three in October. “They grow up so fast.” “They grow up so fast.” “They grow up so fast.” They really do, so Thank You God for pictures, or we wouldn’t remember anything from five years ago.