I know he’s twenty and independent and resourceful and smart. I know this! But he’s still my baby and it was still really hard watching this earlier today:
Notice that he’s walking away from me…
…and toward Prague, where he’ll be studying for the next 11 weeks through a travel abroad program through the University of Washington.
It’s perfect timing for him and he is ripe for an adventure like this. He’ll come back a changed person… which is exactly as it should be. He’ll be wiser, more worldly, and more mature -- yet still, I’m sure, the same ol’ Aleks we love.
I’ve begged him to blog, but he said he’d rather write a private journal – which is actually a wonderful idea and something he’ll read for years to come, I’m sure. Even getting him to take my old digital camera was a struggle. (Hell, even getting him to pose for this picture was a bit of a… well, it was definitely a mommy-request! Can you tell by his smirk?)
I just have to realize that blogging and pictures are my thing, not necessarily his. I have to be patient and just take what he offers. I have a feeling it will be in the form of Facebook updates, which is just fine with me!
So there he goes. My world-traveling, six-foot, body-building baby… off to see the world! Be safe, Aleks. Be a sponge!
Bon Voyage!! I hope he has a wonderful time; I know he'll learn and experience a lot. I cried for days when Ashley went to Africa for 5 months. At least contact with him will be easier in Prague. (and it's a gorgeous place)
ReplyDeleteI can't get over how much he's already changed since the pictures I've seen from high school graduation. He's definitely a man. And like many men, he likely won't be as good of a communicator as us moms would prefer. It's the FB updates that are 99.9% of what I hear from Nate (and they're often a little strange/disturbing!) At least it's just 11 weeks. Which is a long time, but doable. Skype should be great, if he uses it. (Nate doesn't even have internet in his barracks! Whaa!) Good for him, though, for taking this awesome adventure.
ReplyDeleteAuntie,
ReplyDeleteWhen I took my first major trip I was 18. I went to Bali to birth babies for three months, as you know. When I came back my mother explained it to me like this.....(as I sat on her lap I think, haha)
She said, that when you have children you are attached to them by millions of invisible strings. First a placenta (which of course isn't invisible at all), then a mothers milk and on it goes. As we get older, she said, strings stretch and break and bend. About a week after my return from that trip, she told me this. She told me that most all of my strings had completely busted. That they were so clearly gone. That they had broken. They has simply just snapped like the stings that hold a ship to a dock in the most treacherous of storms. She meant that I had become my own person, and it's true. I had.
Alix is amazing. You have done him, already, a lifetime of duty and love and preparation. Watch him grow. He'll still be him, so wholly and completely, he'll just be his own him. I think watching the years to come may even be more amazing then watching the ones you have already seen pass.
So much love to you, you amazing mother.
Good for him! Studying in Rome changed my life in so many ways. If he passes by Regensburg one weekend, I'd be happy to show him around some nice beer gardens ('tis the season after all).
ReplyDeletePrague is great! Can I take his place?
ReplyDelete