Imagining Life

I can't speak for other parents of adult children, but I miss checking in with my daughter on the social networking platforms all day long while she is in Amsterdam on spring break with her wife. They left on Friday and arrived in Europe yesterday. Between an eight-hour time difference and the cost of 3G and WiFi access, she logs on when she can but not as constantly as when she's in the U.S.

When she's at home, we talk irregularly on the phone, but we text, post to Facebook, Twitter and Path, and email constantly. Her dad and I laugh when she uses us to keep her company via cell phone on her drive home from work. Facebook is probably the primary method that we use to keep in touch. She posts photos and her latest art work.

Cece drew this on her iPhone on the transcontinental flight to Amsterdam. I don't know how she gets this much control on an iPhone screen to make such a complex and detailed drawing.

This is my first effort at an iPhone drawing. You can tell I've got a lot of improvement ahead of me! LOL!

I use Facebook to post commentary on the news that I'm reading and occasional photos, especially if I've been traveling or attending events like weddings and reunions with old friends. I also keep up with current news that my friends are talking about and engage in exchanges on their Facebook posts. My daughter and I both post "what we're doing" and "what we're feeling" updates on Twitter when we think of it. Additionally, I have this blog to post longer commentary of things I'm thinking about. We're trying to get my husband to sign on to Facebook so that he can keep up with all the conversations and shared photos and art.

Our daughter, now 25 and a senior in law school, has lived away from home for eight years. It took us until last year when she got married to recognize that she doesn't live in our home anymore and probably never will again, except maybe as a temporary way station transitioning into her own quarters. We haven't quite cleaned out her bedroom, but it's been used as a guest room and storage space for the past several years. Soon, we expect my brother to move into that room as his way station to an apartment in Colorado to be nearer to our mother, who lives with us.

For me, the experience of our daughter finally leaving home is a lot like the experience of aging. I'm not sure how I got here, and at the same time, it feels like it happened overnight. I can't imagine life without my daughter nor can I imagine life without social networking media.