The “Last Firsts” list

Our son is a senior in high school, his sister has long since graduated college and is, of course, taking the world by storm. As we look forward a different life, to the changes that� our empty-nester period will bring (assuming they do not come home to roost, and we have encouraged them not to with threats of skinny dipping and smoking hookah (family inside joke)), we are walking through a lot of “Last Firsts”:

• �Last first day of school (true, there is college, but mom won’t be snapping pictures as he walks out of his dorm room….we hope);
• Last first high school football game of the season (we’re there for the band, we even got to walk out on the field for senior parent day. Sadly, the football team is vastly undersized compared to their opponents);
• Last marching band contest; at the area finals, an all day event, where the band finished higher than any in the high school’s history;
• Last first homecoming date; obviously, the mom gets more excited than the son about homecoming, and my son adds a measure of excitement by having homecoming be the first date with a new girl each of the last three years…the boy is adventurous, it will serve him well;
• Last first senior picnic; they played in the mud, somthing we should all do more of; ‘nuf said.
• Last first Tomball High School patriotic show; for 28 years in a row, Tomball HS has put on this halftime patriotic show, featuring the high school+2 middle school bands, choir, flags and theme songs from all armed services (with veterans from the crowd behind them), fireworks and, of course, a large US Flag. This was our last one, (4 with my son, 4 with my daughter).
• Last first college visit; to UT Arlington, which we all liked quite a bit, and went to the top of the young man’s college sweepstakes (has the degree he wants (Aerospace Eng) and is in Texas);

Soon, there will be a last high school graduation, and we will hopefully have done our job and duty correctly…makes you realize all the trials and tribs your own parents went through to make sure you were a happy and productive person, vs. a chain-saw wielding looney…which unfortunately would get you on the evening news, but probably would not make you very happy.