Empty Nest
As I was walking down Robinwood this morning, it dawned on me that I have been sending kids to the Lakewood Public Schools for 20 years. My daughter Rachel started Kindergarten at Grant Elementary School in August 2004, and my youngest child Anna is entering her senior year at Lakewood High School next month. Robinwood is the street we would drive up to drop our kids off at the high school. I snapped a picture from the corner of Robinwood and Franklin where I would try to convince them to jump out of the car and walk to the front door, so I could avoid the car line and turn right to head off to work.
In just 10 months we will graduate our last child and enter a new phase in our lives. Just typing that sentence brings a tear to my eye. For the past 20 years our lives have been filled with soccer games, cross-country meets, marching band festivals and music concerts. I guess I’ll have to find a new hobby (like walking all the streets in Lakewood in reverse alphabetical order).
After walking around the side of the high school to pick up the southern section of Robinwood (Robinwood is cut off by the high school and has two distinct sections), I passed a house with beautiful purple and gold flowers. As I snapped a selfie of myself the end of the Lakewood Alma Mater came to mind. It finishes, “we shall ne’er forget the purple and the gold”. I’m sure another tear will fall down my cheek when Anna signs these words at her graduation next spring.
