Launched

Know what happens when you launch a rocket?  It's gone.  Oh, you might get pieces of it back...maybe, but it won't be the same.  I think this is what they mean when we launch our children. We prepare them for a life where they make their own decisions and reap the benefits AND the consequences.  Hopefully.

When the boy joined the ANG I got a little taste of this.  I wrote about it here.  And then when my oldest daughter moved out the year after she finished school, there it was again.  But she was local. So, again, it didn't feel "real". (to be clear, it was real, but I still get to see her...well, whenever I want)  Well, now it's reality time and it really hit.  The boy, after finishing his Masters degree in Hospital Administration has joined the USAF.  Now, don't get me wrong.  I LOVE that he has done this, this serving his country through the same branch of the military as my dad did.  And I LOVE that he has so many adventures  and opportunities in his future.  The part I don't love, is once again,  watching the glow of the tail lights.

Saturday morning, he left for 8 weeks at OTS in Alabama <here is where I comment that this poor guy has done every "training" in the dead of summer in the south:  Basic was San Antonio, Tech school was Biloxi, and now OTS is Montgomery.>  From there he goes directly to his first PCS: Charleston SC.  This is not a new chapter.  This is a new book.

We spent most of May and June getting him ready.  The movers (MOVERS!!! Not friends and family who require payment in the form of free beer and pizza...real live MOVERS) will be here early Aug to pick up his belongings and move them to SC.  He has an apartment on hold where he will make his temporary home until his girlfriend moves out next year and they figure out where exactly they want to be.

In so much of this process I have expressed my concerns only to have him let me know that he's already worked that out.  Which is my tell that he is ready.   Him wanting me to let go and my willingness to do so are mutually exclusive, however much I try and kid myself that they are not.  BUT, knowing that this is what we prepare them for made it a LITTLE easier.

This son of mine.  He is an amazing young man.  He helped me through probably the darkest time in my life.  He was a sounding board with so much wisdom I sometimes questioned if he was mine.(he is...we have the same head circumference).  He has so much integrity  and empathy.  I saw that in him when he was just a boy. When you think you have him figured out, he zags when you were positive he would zig and the end results always exceed what you expected. Character.  Faith.  Honor. Intelligence  Courage. Service. Determination.  He is like a walking billboard of what the military would want in their leaders. They are lucky to have him.

So, Saturday morning after packing everything he needed for OTS in his truck and plotting his course, he said good-bye.  as we hugged, he said he hoped he could make me proud.  THAT, my sweet child, you have already done.  It has no bounds.