How is it I'm still 21, yet have three daughters who have graduated university?

Well that’s it, that’s all; for now folks. The youngest of our three is a university graduate. She finished with just shy of a 3.8 GPA, which I think is fucking amazing. I didn’t go to university so I have absolutely no idea what I would have graduated with. I didn’t even know what I wanted to do, so attending post secondary wasn’t a priority for me. Nor was it an option since I got pregnant while on a gap year. And truthfully I shouldn’t say that I didn’t know what I wanted to do, because I definitely had an itch to be an actress. I also had fantasies of becoming a professional dancer, but I had terrible feet, and couldn’t get off the ground with jumps, so ballet was out. I couldn’t retain choreography so any sort of theater dance corp stuff was also out. The closest I got to dancing professionally is when I cheered for the Toronto Argonauts and got paid to dance hip hop for two years at the Sky Dome in Toronto. That was fun and whipped my body into shape lickety split post second baby.

Mikaela is nothing like me. First she didn’t take a gap year, even though she was young going into university, seventeen; therefore she didn’t get pregnant before getting the opportunity to go to post secondary. Plus she’s always known exactly what sort of university experience she wanted to have. From a very young age she also knew that she wanted that experience to happen specifically at Pepperdine University. She says her desire came from watching Zoe 101, I like to believe it came from the draw she felt toward the majestic campus while driving by it all her life to go to her Godparents home for Sunday dinners.

She has amazing manifestation skills. She had a 4% chance of getting a spot at Pepp, and she made that happen. A girl from Toronto Canada, with only one language, and no sports, got into one of the most difficult private universities in America. To say I’m proud of her would be an understatement. To say I’m surprised at all the incredible things she has already achieved in her young life, would be a lie. Nothing Mikaela does surprises me. She is one of the most phenomenal young women I know. I cannot believe that I get to call her daughter, and get to spend the rest of my life with her. I feel like I’ve won the jackpot.

The saddest part of all that happened yesterday, (which is her being done with university already) for me, is that normally she gets on the plane with me in May and comes back to Toronto for the summer. I get her all to myself. We do whatever we want for three straight months, and I enjoy every moment of it. This year this will not happen. This year we will pack up her townhouse tomorrow, her furniture will go into storage for just over a year while she stays in LA to study to sit her LSATS. You see, her Pepperdine journey might be over, but her quest to becoming a lawyer is only beginning. Which is why I began this post with: “well that’s it for NOW”. She’s merely taking a moment to catch her breath, study, and then by fall of 2019 she’ll be at whatever law school she has set her sights on.

Me, I’ll be rattling around in my Toronto house all by myself for the very first time. I thank God for having a cottage to finish building, that should occupy a good six weeks…once that is complete I’ll have another project to tend to which oughta keep me busy for a solid month. So my empty nesting FOR REAL will be deferred. I’ve been extremely successful at keeping it at bay for a good long while, every time in the past that I thought it was going to happen, it didn’t, either Mikaela or Dominique ended up at home. Sadly this time it is for real.

I’m not ready for it. But I knew this day would come, and even though I will miss our summers together I’m ridiculously proud of this next phase in her journey. I never doubted that she would achieve all the great things she has thus far in life. I cannot wait to see what the future holds for my little bug in pink.

xoxo

Mutti