One Homeschooler's Transition to Adulthood

What's it like having a kid about to leave for college?

It's a time of transition. 

Some days I am excited.  

Some days I do a lot of crying realizing how much I'll miss her. 

I have always homeschooled her, and I was always a parent first, but in the last several months to a year, my daughter has become a true friend and intellectual companion, so it will be a real loss for me when she goes away.  

She's graduated, but she actually has just a few more Physics assignments to complete for me before June, so she's technically not entirely done with her academic work. 

She's working (almost full time) to pay for college tuition and housing next year. She'll be going to school without taking any loans and accumulating any debt. So she's trying to manage her Physics, household chores like laundry, and hobbies like piano in the time left over at the end of her work days. I'm giving her some advice about that, but also giving her more space to fail than I have ever given her before. Managing life and work will be a life-long struggle, will it not? I didn't make my bed on a regular basis until my thirties. I hope things will be different for her, but I realize they may not be. 

She's driving herself to work now and taking trips to church or friends' houses by herself, enjoying that freedom, but also experiencing the responsibility that comes with it, too.  

We're helping her formulate a budget and starting to give her access to credit and debit, etc. Lots of important, practical conversations are being had. 

She applied for a lease on an apartment with the other freshman girls at her college. She's actually too young to legally be on the lease for at least a few months still, but we couldn't be more proud of the way she's stepping up and handling her business, coordinating with property managers, etc. 

She's been a reader since she was four, and she is still reading enthusiastically. Her pre-ordered copy of Wes Callihan's Iliad came in the mail the other day. (See picture below.) 

And she's been a writer since she was in grade school. She still writes creatively in her free time. She's up there now, typing away at another story.   

She often talks to her siblings in the evenings, too. And even though they seem to get loud at just the time I wish the house were getting quiet, I let them talk anyway, since I recognize the time is precious and I love that they love each other and are actually friends. 

She's generally setting a stellar example of what it means be an excellent young woman for her younger siblings who are watching and rightly admiring her. I honestly think parenting her siblings is easier for me because they watch and see her respect me and then they emulate her. 

While there's some anxiety, of course, there's also an abundance of peace knowing who she is in her character and where she's headed and that the Lord is certainly with her.