By Tommi Vincent

To date we have had two of our children go off to college, and yet as we cross this bridge once again, it does not get any easier. It gives us great joy to consider our children moving forward into the next chapter of their life, but this does not come without the ting of grief you experience knowing that life as we knew it will never be the same. Every little thing around the house spawns a memory. We travel down the road of “remember when” with tears streaming down our face while laughing at the same time. You start to feel a little crazy!

We are crazy, crazy in love with our children. They are the best and worst of who we are. The latter we would like to spare them of. Unfortunately, it is a total package. As parents, it is our responsibility to teach our children how to embrace every aspect of who they are. A regular check-up of the man in the mirror is a necessity for personal growth. Our responsibility in assisting with their development is to ensure we continue to exercise the same self-evaluation. Never quit understood the parenting style of do as I say, not as a do. If our personal conduct cannot be mimicked by our children, what does that say about our conduct?

Once our children leave from under our roof, all we can do is pray that the life we lived before them proved to be a life desired to live. We hope they aspire to mimic the best of who we are and learned to be better than the worst of who we are. Until the next chapter begins we will continue reading along as they pen their own story.