Growing Up

My daughter is 11 and started 6th grade yesterday. She is my baby and it's really bothering me more than I thought it would. 6th grade!! It seems like yesterday she was starting kindergarten and now she is in junior high (or as they call it today "middle school"). I also have a son that is 16 and a junior in high school and I know that’s why it is bothering me so much. She’s the last one. She’s 11 and I think 7 years and she could leave – 7 years and she’s off to college. I don’t know how this happened. School clothes shopping was different this year. She was pickier than she usually is. She always wears her long curly hair back into a ponytail but hasn’t worn it like that since school started. What happened to my child that just over the summer was happy pulling on a t-shirt and shorts and run around with her hair in a pony tail? Overnight she changed. I knew it was coming when we went shopping for school clothes. Jessi has never been and probably will never be a “girly girl” as she calls it. She plays softball and is a very good fast pitch pitcher so she’s more the athletic type. I’m not sure after school goes on this year if she will retreat back to her old ways or is that little girl gone forever?

Well, when she got home she went to her room and came out dressed like my Jessi in one of her softball tournament t-shirts and shorts with her in a ponytail. I smiled and tears came to my eyes – she’s still that same girl and always will be in my heart no matter what.