Time just flies

I have had my daughter Chelsea staying with me this week and it's been wonderful.  She has had to go into the city every day for a work placement through school and I happen to live very close to the train station.  So close in fact that sometimes it sounds like the train is hurtling through my living room.


It's hard to believe that in just 18 months my daughters will be finished school and will be making their own way in the world.  Chelsea is keen to be an events organiser in a big hotel or entertainment complex and I think she will be very good at it.  She seems to be the one amongst her many friends who gets things done and she is definitely a go getter who wants to take life by the scruff of the neck and wring every last drop out of it.  She'll go far I think.

Emily originally started to pursue a career in hospitality but even before she had done her work placement a couple of weeks ago, she had started to have second thoughts.  Emily is the complete opposite to Chelsea in every way imaginable.  She is a home body who doesn't really go out of her way to be sociable.  Occasionally she will go to a party or hang out with her friends but she's mostly happy in her own little world.  She likes her computer and TV and doesn't seem to have any lofty dreams as yet. 


Emily has now changed her focus to Child Care and I think that would suit her perfectly.  She loves babies and little children and in fact already helps to teach the babies dance class after her own class has finished on a Wednesday.  It's really cute because at the end of the lesson all these little ones chorus together "thankyou Miss Emily".  I think Emily will just cruise through life at her own pace and she won't be hurried by anyone and that's ok.

We are all different in what we hope to get out of life.

Looking back now I know I could have achieved much greater things than I have but I was a different person when I was a fresh faced teenager and young adult.  I was content with the way things were and was happy to just coast along.  I don't look at the world the same way at all now.  If I don't like something in my life or can see room for improvement I am not content to just let it lie.  Maybe it's the passing of time or maybe it's because as those numbers increase in that Age box I have become more aware of my mortality and the need for action before it's too late.

This weekend the girls and I are going to the dressmakers to pick up their ball gowns for the Presentation Ball we are all going to in August through school.  I guess it's a bit like a prom and it will be very formal.  They are both going to be dressed in white and when we went for a fitting last week I got a huge lump in my throat because they almost looked like brides.  I just know I am going to cry when I see the finished gown on them.


Where on earth did those chubby faced, cherubic little girls go?  Now they are driving, they're in Senior School and they are dipping their toes in the employment pool to get a taste of what's ahead.

I see my beautiful girls becoming women before my very eyes and I hope for so much for them. I hope they find a job that will not only support them but give them great satisfaction. I want to protect them from harm or from being hurt, but realistically I know I can't do that. I think adversity helps to shape us into better human beings. We all have to suffer at some point or how will we recognise what's good and important in our lives if we don't have any concept of the more negative, destructive aspects that are always just waiting to pounce.


I hope they fall in love and have that person love them just as deeply. Most of all I hope that all their dreams, big or small, come true.


It's so hard to let them go but my job is almost over and it's time to let them loose.  I just hope I have taught them enough to be the best they can be.