A Milestone
My son took off on his great adventure this morning. He is on his gap year and has gone travelling for 2 months. The time leading up to departure is a familiar one for anyone who has or had teenagers. You remind them to do things for the trip. They agree, days go by and then it’s the day before departure. Well, I can’t begin to list the things that went wrong. I still have my fingers crossed they let him into the States. He is my baby and I’ve definitely coddled him so I hope by going out there even for a short time on his own, he’ll come back a little more grown up.
Even though he doesn’t start uni until the autumn and he’s only gone for 2 months, his departure symbolizes an empty nest for me. It’s the beginning of the rest of my life. While I adore my children, I’m very happy they are growing up and moving into worlds of their own, both emotionally and geographically.
So what to do with the rest of my life? I’ll put more effort into my cooking classes, I have wonderful friends with expertise in areas where I am seriously deficient so I’m going to take them up on their offers of help. I am also pursuing an opportunity to turn the roasted nuts I do as nibbles for my students into a real product. It opens up a whole other set of challenges which I am trying to meet. The translation business is booming at the moment so I am kept busy happily subtitling the adventures of a robot cat and his hapless human. I think it’s a good place to start to build.
On an entirely different note, I went to a concert with my kids last night. We saw the Foo Fighters. The kids are huge fans and have seen them many times. I have been a fan but have only seen them once before, I think about 13 years ago in Tokyo. The kids credit me with having introduced them to the music so I’m feeling a little cool. Anyway, it was a blast, they are a wonderful band to see and it was so much fun to share an evening with my kids. It wasn’t as loud as I would have liked. Apparently concerts these days are not as loud as the old days and we were in the nosebleed section which may have affected the volume, or maybe it is simply age? There were fans there from early teens through to late 50s which maybe the demographic for established bands with a history these days. I think how different our generation is from that of our parents. I can’t imagine my mom at 52, going with me to a concert (or gigs as they call them now).
Can’t wait to see what’s going to happen next in my life. Whatever it is, I’m ready.
Hiromi, you ARE cool!
Funny, what you say about not being able to imagine your mom going with you to a concert. How different our lives are, in our 50s, from those of our parents!
I’ve often thought about the fact that I never saw either of my parents exercise. The last time my mom ever tootled around our suburban neighborhood on her bicycle, she was probably in her early 30s. What would she think of her 50-something-year-old daughter, hopping on her bike and riding 15 miles in Manhattan?
Hi Jane, sorry I thought I’d approved the comment ages ago. Thank you for thinking I am cool. My friend’s mom did come with us to a T Rex concert when we were 13 but I think it was more as a chaperone than as a fan. I remember she didn’t get all caught up in fighting for Mickey Finn’s tambourine.