My Daughter's Last First Day

I wake up….a new school year begins just as it always has.
But this day is different……
It is my daughters last first day.
All her other first days flash through my sleep deprived mind. Her first first day, of preschool….I take their picture outside in our backyard. I watch as she so proudly walks away from me, with her shiny new pink backpack, holding hands with her big sister, climbing the staircase into the school building. They look back, smile and wave to me as I sit in my car, tears streaming down my face. My big little girl, on her first first day.
Fast forward to her first day of kindergarten. so proud now to be at the “big Kid” school. She again enters with her older sister holding her hand. So happy, so sweet so little. Yet bigger.
Many other firsts have followed. Yet these firsts, though difficult, are somehow okay as there are many more first days to come. Such a sweet security in that simple knowledge. The years fall into a beautiful routine. Lazy summers followed by what seemed to be endless first days.
I return to the present……gazing at my beautiful girl, now a senior in high school, so confident, still wearing pink all these years later, humoring me as I take a picture in the same spot outside in our backyard as I have on all of her previous first days. I ask if I can walk her down the driveway, holding her hand. She nods in quiet understanding. She gets in her car, and pulls away with a smile.
My little big girl…….on her last first day.