Kelsey - grace grits and gardening

It’s true. Life is a highway, and a portion of mine has been spent on Interstate 35 from Dallas to Austin. Dallas holds the most memories, some so fresh I can remember particular smells or what I thought at the time. Some memories hit me unexpectedly, carrying me back twenty years or more.

Waco is midway between Dallas and Austin. We speed past the exit but I marvel at the obvious changes since I was a young college student. The interstate is lined with restaurants, Baylor’s impressive new stadium, construction everywhere, but still my eyes seek out those parts that were mine. The Brazos River. My dorm, Alexander Hall. Pat Neff, glowing green after a game day win.

I left little pieces of myself there, but we have no time to stop and visit. Not this time. Our daughter graduates from University of Texas Law School this afternoon. Her whole life has pointed to this moment. As a kid she was focused, centered, wise beyond her years. Austin is her place filled with her memories.

What’s next?

We never know. Lots of life, hopefully, and maybe someday I’ll be driving this highway again headed to my granddaughter’s graduation. And my daughter will feel as proud as I do right now.

Kelsey (right) and her law school friends.

Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

[tweetthis]Life is a highway. Let’s do this #graduation thing! #UT16[/tweetthis]

Musical Pairing:
Rascal Flatts, Life is a Highway

When our neighborhood was platted and the homes constructed, property taxes were assessed per room. And a closet was considered a room. To avoid the closet tax, most Munger Place homes were built without closets. This didn’t much matter back then when people only had a change of work clothes and a Sunday-go-to-meetin’ outfit. Later, closets were added in corners and odd spots as needs changed. Now that everyone has way too much stuff and new outfits arrive daily on the porch steps via one simple mouse click for next day UPS delivery, those closets are stuffed with barely worn clothes and shoes and prom dresses and halloween costumes and business suits that haven’t seen daylight or a boardroom since business casual became the new professional norm.

In our house, Kelsey’s room has the coolest closet. It’s big and spacious and comes with it’s own stained glass window. I do some of my best shopping in that closet. Full of treasures, it’s convenient and the price is always right. Some items were left behind when she moved to Austin for college and some were left behind when she moved to Washington DC for work. On a rare trip home, usually around the holidays, she may leave clothes and take others. So the inventory sometimes changes.

I scored an awesome Michael Kors bag in there. Never mind that I probably originally bought it…. Only so many purses could go off to college. Sometimes I find the perfect tank top right off the rack for a special event. And I found the best pair of J. Crew skinny jeans after Christmas that I can actually wear! Clearly if they were really skinny jeans, she wouldn’t have left them, but they make me feel better anyway.

There is also a shopping bag full of beauty supplies like nail polish remover, lotions of all kinds and shampoo. I haven’t bought toothpaste in a long time. We don’t wear the same size shoe unfortunately, but that’s just as well – she managed to make room for the best of those.

The closet is also full of memories. Like the plastic tub of drill team things, the box of toys including Baby. She never went anywhere without Baby, until she did. And board games we played for hours. There are boxes of awards and ribbons for her many school age accomplishments. The needlepoint “Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep” I made for her nursery before she was born, rests behind an old jewelry box on the closet shelf.

Kelsey is happy and thriving, busy working and preparing for law school. As she should be. Her baccalaureate poster sits on the closet floor, and sometimes I like to go in the closet to look at the photos on it, just remembering. The closet still smells like her perfume.

Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.