What I know now.

This morning, I dropped my daughter at theatre camp.  It's the last week before school starts and she's been looking forward to it all summer.  During the parent orientation, the director made a comment that was something like, "it's the week before school starts and parents AREN'T YOU EXCITED!!!!" And my daughter looked back at me with a quizzical look and I shook my head no.

It's been the shortest summer on record.  School starts earlier for us this year and that certainly doesn't help.  This being a summer full of worry for my daughter (she's starting middle school--eek!), we've been hanging out a ton and talking, talking, talking.  And it's been really cool.

And for some reason, I've been very affected by the parents of the high school seniors I shot this year, watching their kids go off to college.  Perhaps it's my own kid heading to middle school or perhaps I'm just projecting into the future--I don't know, but it just seems like it's going really, really fast.  And I just can't savor the time enough.

The first thing people said to me as a new parent was to savor the days, they'll go by so quickly.  I didn't know.

We were at the store the other day, and my daughter was picking out something for her room--so excited because it was something that she really, really loved.  As she stood, deciding between blue and pink, a woman came up and watched her.  I asked the woman if I was in her way and moved to the side of the aisle so she could pass, but she said no, she was just enjoying watching the obvious joy my daughter was emitting.  And then she looked at me and said, "Tomorrow she'll be married."

And the trouble is, now I know this is true.  And so I savor the moments with this girl as much as I can, because tomorrow will be here before I know it.