Thursday, December 5, 2019

An Ode to College Boys


They are still 3rd graders to me. 3rd graders with facial hair and gigantic shoes. Sending your kid off to college is difficult enough without the fact that you essentially have to send off a bunch of other kids that he brought into your life over the years as well. Kids who slept in your basement and came up stairs sporting plaid pj pants and bedhead when they were eight years old. Kids who ate all the pancakes in record time and played wiffle ball in the backyard for hours and left 435 styrofoam nerf bullets all over your house. Kids who you loaded in your car for basketball and baseball and even a couple of seasons of hockey practice. 



There were periods of time over the last ten years when I saw some of them more or less due to differing sports travel schedules or activities or moving across the country or moving back again, but mostly because of Driver's Licenses. (RIP to the Carpool Days When I was an Expert Eavesdropper) But I never stopped loving and praying for these kids. They became a part of my heart so early on. And I just can't quit them.

Listen to me, young mamas: One minute they are in your backyard pretending they just hit one over the Green Monster at Fenway and the next minute they all just up and leave AT THE SAME TIME. In cars and on airplanes. IT IS SO RUDE. 

But then they come back. And they run at each other and jump into each other's arms like lovestruck fools. Best yet they each hop off the couch one by one and hug the moms and shake hands and clap the dads on the back. There might even be a mom who gets a midnight facetime with a couple of them smushing their faces together on the screen just to say "Hi!". They leave their shoes on the laundry room floor just like they always did, except now the shoes are enormous. Then they bound down the basement stairs to watch football or play knee hockey just like they always did, except now it's as if all the plaster on the walls is going to come crashing down around them because they are suddenly gigantic man-people. Their voices float up the stairways just like they always did, except now they are deep and booming and it really, really freaks me out.



They are not close to perfect. They've certainly annoyed and worried the fire out of us at times, leading to numerous emergency coffee/wine conferences to discuss all of our fears and worries. They've pushed us a little bit, which might have caused one or more of us to utter something along the lines of THIS IS NOT YOUR COLLEGE DORM OR YOUR FRATERNITY HOUSE, YOU LUNATIC.

And here's the thing. As imperfect as they are I will always compare every group of boys who come into this house to these weirdos. It's not even close to fair. But it is what it is. They are polite and they are helpful and they are funny as all get out. I can still see their little boy smiles covered with sticky cherry slurpees under their college boy smirks. I would imagine I'll continue to pray for every last one of them for the rest of time. 

And I know above all else that the blessing of having these kids in my life is exactly equal to the blessing of the fact that because the boys all became friends, God was able to stick their mamas smack dab in the middle of my path all those many years ago . . . women who have listened and laughed and cried with me over these many yearsMy kids will always have a group of women cheering them on in their lives, as I will cheer on their kids. We're good at it now. We've been doing it since we sat in basketball gyms and in baseball bleachers when they were little peanuts with cleats untied and shirttails hanging out.



So we mamas will keep praying and cheering and we'll welcome them back in a few weeks for Christmas break with a reminder: 

You jokers can decide on your own curfew when and only when you pay for your own electricity and can afford to buy us a margarita and a taco dinner with guacamole even though it's an extra charge. See you soon, dorks. 

2 comments:

Ginger said...

LOVE THIS!!

Kerr said...

I'm crying again! This is so beautiful!