So proud of my daughter…

Kami is my firstborn. 

There is a difference between the coveted place of being first and the scary place of going first.  This girl has had to brave the unknown at every turn, her sisters simply drafting in her wake.  She had to go to pre-school first, play YMCA soccer first, go to KidZone first, go to Big Church first, go to Middle School first, babysit first, get a job first, go to High School first, pay for her own gas first, graduate and go to college first…the list of firsts are as infinite as they are infinitesimal. 

I think the "firsts" that were the probably the most peculiar to navigate were the ones where we as her parents were taking our first crack at parenting her.  We were trying things out on her with eating patterns, nap times, parenting styles, forms of discipline, modes of communication, the tension of boundaries and freedom—always monitoring responses and either loosening up or tightening up based on her feedback.  Everything we learned from her in the lab of life we built upon with the next child and then the next.  But she went first…she hasn’t known a different life.

So when she was our first to head to college, we didn’t know what to expect…and as excited as she was, she didn’t know what to expect either.  Oh, she expected to meet new friends and to be in a Christian environment and to be a nurse, but honestly, she thought it would be a social riot.  And it was…until her first test.  Reality hit hard and she realized real fast that college was hard.  Really, really hard.

She didn’t have a sibling to go before her letting her know before she went exactly what to expect.  She had to explore and experiment.  She had to try and test.  She had to fall and fail.  She had to shake off defeat and rise again.  She had to work through homesickness.  She had to reinvent herself in order to survive and succeed.  And she did.

She has done that from day one because she’s always had to go first and make a path where there was none.  And that’s why I’m wildly proud of her today.