07/30/2026
We spent the afternoon shopping for a mattress.
Somewhere between comparing firmness and laughing in the middle of a warehouse, I found myself looking at my daughter a little differently.
She’s about to start her junior year of college. She confidently picked what she wanted, made decisions, and envisioned the space she wants to create. She didn’t need me to do those things.
And that’s exactly the point.
For more than twenty years, my job hasn’t been to keep her dependent on me. It’s been to help her become independent from me.
That’s a strange thing to celebrate, because it requires letting go of a role you’ve loved.
But watching her step so confidently into her own life reminded me that this isn’t something to mourn. It’s something to be incredibly proud of.
We left with a mattress…and I left grateful that she’s becoming the strong, independent woman I always knew she would.