Thoughts from a Senior Dad – The First Day of Senior Year

To all Great Hearts Parents of a High School Senior,

Senior year is in full swing and if you are like me, your emotions are all over the place. We are also navigating all the feelings we encounter as parents of soon-to-be graduates. You might be afraid to blink. Because if you do, you just might miss a special moment that you will never get back. Follow along with me this year as I try to take in all the milestones as they come and take time to reflect on what they mean to us as parents. I am warning you, being the dad of a daughter can bring an entire spectrum of emotions out of me. Think Steve Martin’s character in Father of the Bride.

My daughter has begun her final year of high school. Thus, beginning the slough of last firsts. The first day of school was the last time she asked me if her uniform looked okay for her first day of school, the last time I took her first day of school picture, and the last time she comes home to tell me all about her first day.

But the nostalgia that I feel is short-lived because there is very little time to sit and reflect during your child’s senior year. We have already begun the process of college applications after a summer of college visits, research, and difficult conversations that come with narrowing down the long list of colleges she has been interested in. We want her to go to the school of her dreams, no matter where it is located. But selfishly, we want her close to us… for the rest of her adult life, preferably.

We have many decisions to make in the next few months. It feels like a juggling act between the practical “to do” lists and the abundance of emotions we are feeling. Between deciding on a photographer for her senior pictures, making sure out-of-town family members have the dates for her graduation week, choosing a venue for her graduation party, and navigating the senior events that are coming up, all the while trying to appreciate every moment that we have left with her under our roof.

Without being too melodramatic, I felt an impending loss in my home on the first day this year. My daughter, who I still see as my little girl, has begun the start of the end of her childhood. We are preparing for our last fall break with her at home, our last Christmas with her living here and not just “visiting” from school, her last spring break taking a family trip with us.

I want this for her. It’s what we have been preparing for. We want her to thrive in college and then go out and conquer the world. But as the countdown begins, I can’t help but think about all the things I still need to teach her before the school year ends.  Does she know how to keep her white laundry bright? How to balance a bank account? How to make a meal that has some nutritional value?

Perhaps I am getting ahead of myself. She is going to an amazing academy for high school. She has incredible friends. A good support system. And she is a bright and responsible young woman who works hard and does everything with excellence. Perhaps my biggest worry, selfishly, as a parent is that she won’t need me anymore.

Walking into the first day of school, I was very aware of the journey we have embarked on and any curveballs coming our way. But at the end of the year, I will get to watch my child walk across the stage to receive her diploma, and holding on to that makes it all worth it.

This is just the beginning of many milestones to come our way this year. Soon, things will never be the same.  Our only hope is that we can keep up with life as it rapidly progresses forward. And for my senior, my hope is that she can enjoy every last bit of this, her senior year!

Sincerely,
A Great-Hearted Senior’s Dad

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