{"id":18421,"date":"2020-10-01T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-01T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sasee.wpenginepowered.com\/?post_type=essay&p=18421"},"modified":"2024-03-26T15:08:38","modified_gmt":"2024-03-26T19:08:38","slug":"moving-day","status":"publish","type":"essay","link":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/essay\/moving-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Moving Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I made her bed, I felt the lump again. My baby wouldn\u2019t be sleeping under my roof that night.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve already spent so much on my move to school,\u201d my 18-year-old daughter, Julia, said. \u201cYou bought my bedding, my towels, and all of my storage stuff. I\u2019m paying for these dorm decorations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I nodded, but when we got to the check out, I just piled everything on the counter and paid for it. It took Julia a minute to realize what I was doing. She protested and tried to pay me back for her purchases, but I said, \u201cHoney, don\u2019t worry about it. This stuff will be so cute in your room. Besides, this will be our last shopping trip together for a while.\u201d I felt the now-familiar lump in my throat as I said the words. I could hardly believe my baby girl was going away to college.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my head, I knew that I was overreacting. The college that Julia had chosen was only 30 minutes from our house. I would probably still see her on a weekly basis. I\u2019d already planned to meet her for coffee, shopping trips, and pedicures. In my head, I knew this move wasn\u2019t that big of a deal. But in my heart, I was grieving. I was used to seeing Julia every single day. Although we would still see one another often, our relationship was changing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And although things were going exactly the way they were supposed to, I was still sad at the changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next morning, we packed up two cars and drove to Julia\u2019s dorm room. As my husband, Eric, lofted her bed, I unpacked her clothes and toiletries. I organized her bathroom and hung her shower curtain. As I made her bed, I felt the lump again. My baby wouldn\u2019t be sleeping under my roof that night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or any night in the near future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julia\u2019s roommate and her parents arrived, and we finished organizing the girls\u2019 room. Then we all went out to dinner together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had a great time, but I couldn\u2019t really enjoy myself. These were my last few minutes with Julia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we dropped her back off at her dorm, I hugged her tight and couldn\u2019t hold back my tears. \u201cI\u2019m so proud of you, Honey,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI love you Momma,\u201d she said, squeezing her eyes tight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I cried most of the way back to our house. That night, Julia texted me the sweetest good night message. The next night, she called to tell me about her day, and we talked for nearly two hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think you two are talking more now than when she lived at home,\u201d Eric said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I shrugged. \u201cIt\u2019s still not the same.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next morning, I opened my laptop to answer some emails and found a Ziploc baggie with a few twenty dollar bills and three Post-it notes. Tears filled my eyes as I realized it was from Julia. \u201cMom, this money is to pay you back for the decorations you bought the other day,\u201d the first Post-it note said. \u201cThank you for everything you\u2019ve done for me. You\u2019re the best mom in the world and I love you so much,\u201d the second one said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the third note was the one that really got me. \u201cYou are my best friend and you\u2019ll always be my favorite person to talk to,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those three Post-it notes are so much more valuable to me than the money she included in the bag. They made me realize how blessed I am to have a daughter like Julia. She is incredibly kind, and she made me feel so loved from 30 miles away. We\u2019ve always been close, but we grew even closer during the shutdown. Nearly every day, we sat and talked for hours. She has this way of making people loved and understood. Holding those Post-it notes in my hand reminded me how blessed I am to be her mom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julia\u2019s moving day was a hard day for me. I had to take my daughter to school and leave her there. I would no longer see her every day. When I returned home and went into her now-empty bedroom at our house, I thought my heart would break. When I saw my dogs searching the house for Julia and whining when they couldn\u2019t find her, tears flooded my eyes. When something exciting happened and I had to text her to tell her about it, that always-present lump in my throat grew so much bigger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in the days since moving day, I\u2019ve realized that things have changed less than I thought they would. I haven\u2019t seen Julia, but we have talked on the phone or texted every day. She still tells me everything that\u2019s going on in her life. We\u2019re still close. I\u2019m still her favorite person to talk to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moving day might have changed Julia\u2019s address, but it didn\u2019t change our relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I\u2019ll always feel blessed to be her mom.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I made her bed, I felt the lump again. My baby wouldn\u2019t be sleeping under my roof that night. \u201cYou\u2019ve already spent so much on my move to school,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_gspb_post_css":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","footnotes":""},"essay_type":[46],"essay-category":[],"class_list":["post-18421","essay","type-essay","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","essay_type-features"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/essay\/18421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/essay"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/essay"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/essay\/18421\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"essay_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/essay_type?post=18421"},{"taxonomy":"essay-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/essay-category?post=18421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}