So, where do we begin? I suppose beginning at the beginning makes the most sense. Yesterday (coincidentally, on her dad’s 56th birthday) we put our tiny baby on an airplane headed for Tokyo, Japan. It feels so surreal. As parents, we try to nurture independence and confidence, and then for some reason we’re surprised when our children thrive and succeed, leaving us behind in their wake wondering where the years went.

I spent the weeks leading up to her departure in this odd “reverse-nesting” mode where I couldn’t stop cleaning, fixing things, purging, reorganizing… you get the picture. I’ve been preparing my nest for her to not be in it. We did lots of shopping for her new conservative business wardrobe. We had a going away party. We had a vacation back to Virginia to visit our east coast family. We converted US Dollars to Japanese Yen. We did all.the.things. She had so many last dinners, lunches, coffees, and gatherings with her coworkers and friends that she was hardly home, but when she was home she was busy packing boxes, repacking, weighing, trying to maximize the space she has available for her belongings. Yesterday, when we dropped her off at the airport, I felt a sense of peace wash over me that I wasn’t expecting. I thought I’d be an absolute mess. Most of my anxiety seemed to happen in the months and weeks leading up to this, but that final piece of putting her on a plane seemed to be the end of all the chaos, at least for us.

For her, the chaos is just beginning. She is going to have many amazing experiences, both good and bad. She’ll (probably) use what we’ve taught her for the last 23 years. She’s going to continue to grow and thrive, finally achieving the goal that she set for herself many years ago: to travel the world. I am so very proud, and while it makes me (just a little) sad for her to be so far away, I know she’s on her own path with a good head on her shoulders and ready to experience life on her own terms.

This journal is my way to process this new undiscovered world laid out ahead of us as our parent/child dynamic changes and grows. I want to use this space to catalog her experiences, but also want to write about some of the little things I’m doing back home so that she can have a little peek into the nest she left behind.

We miss you, CJ!