Leaving school

Today I attended Liverpool College Leavers' Service at the school chapel, accompanied by #2 daughter who had come home from uni for aged parent's birthday yesterday and her "little" brother's exit from the only school he has known for the past 16 years.

It's a sad day for me, not unlike that first day at school where you leave a tiny child in an oversized stiff new uniform at the school door, waving and smiling bravely but devastated inside. This is the last of my 4 "babies" to leave school, and soon will fly the nest for higher education. The principal in his speech said that the sum of everything the former pupils had learned from school, friends and experiences was less in total than what had been received from the parents, and that they should always remember that with gratitude. I'm sure I've not been the best mother in the world but I have certainly given it my best shot, and seeing the four healthy, happy and well-adjusted young people at my family birthday meal out last night made me very proud.

I have been connected with the school for 24 years, since a diminutive #1 son stepped through its doors, and now a door is closing on that part of my life. Now I have to try to think of a way to make the rest of it count.