For me that time came when Amanda and I went back on Monday, the day after graduation, to finish gathering the last of her belongings and to clean and vacuum her dorm room. This was her home away from home for senior year, a 3rd floor walk up in an old Victorian home, right in the Harvard Square area of Cambridge (the most perfect place for any college student to live during their first years away from home, if you ask me!)
September 2007, move in day...
Her prized possession was this cheerful yellow "ice cream parlor" chair that we picked up for $5 at a junktique store over the summer.
My love of birds has clearly been passed to the next generation (as well as my love for cottage blue!)...
The shelves, on that September day, were stacked with anticipation in the form of favorite books, DVD's, CD's, and even little pink and blue ice cream cups, promises of all the good times her senior year would bring...
To borrow a very clever 'imaginary photo insertion' technique used by Sherry from Edie Marie's Attic, this is where dorm room photos taken sometime after move-in, but before move-out, would appear (if I had the courage to show them!!), soooo, use your imagination and....
[insert images of a typical dorm room throughout the college year... add an extra dose of clutter and chaos if said child occupying the room is an art major]... 'nuff said.
Fast forward, and I do mean FAST forward, to move-out day (this year flew by)...
The sweet little room that was her home for the past nine months was once again just an empty shell, stripped clean of any personality. The echoes of laughter and good times that once permeated this room, and the hallways in general, are but a memory.
As my daughter headed down the three flights of stairs with the last load, I turned to look back at her room one last time. The excitement, the laughter, the smiles, the crowds, the cheering - the very 'busy-ness' of graduation the day before was such a stark contrast to today's events. The silence of this once energetic, exciting, buzzing dorm house was deafening. And in the quietness of that moment, the tears started...
And here I thought I'd made it through the whole graduation process without the need for tissues! I should have know better!!!
Donna