Forward Motion

Phase. Season. Period. Stage. Chapter. Whatever. We go through a lot of them. Being surrounded primarily by students and an infant this has been thrown into sharp relief. Audrey grows constantly and learns something new every two weeks (or seconds). The students write papers, stay up late and only take care of themselves. I did those things a short time ago but now my time is taken up running our household and being a wife and mother. And we all do this under one roof.

It's exciting to watch Audrey enter a new stage in her development. It's fun that she can quasi-crawl around the apartment and try to keep up with me as I go from room to room. She's completely given up her pacifier. This week she began the early stages of pulling to standing, which means she will be walking before too long. It's just amazing to me to think that just nine months ago she was born and all she could do was sleep and cry. She even had to learn to eat. Now she can do so many things and eat so, so so much. She goes from one stage to the next so fast sometimes I forget what the previous stage was like. But with each step forward it gets more exciting. When she smiled I thought life couldn't get any better. Then she laughed. I can't imagine what it will be like when she talks.

The students spend their time very differently from Ryan and I. They go to classes and internships, read great books and spend a lot of time together. They live at the crossroads of freedom and duty, with one of their biggest challenges being to find the balance. Some of the students will graduate in December, thus entering a very different chapter in their lives. Up until now they haven't worried about money, where they're going to live or other "grown up" things. They're applying for career jobs all across the country and preparing to make big decisions. They don't know what the immediate future holds but they are excited. There's promise and hope in the change. But they're not there yet. They're on the cusp of somethings new while still very much so students, with all the stress and responsibilities it brings.

Ryan and I are the older (or just old, as one student told me) and wiser of the bunch, which we have never been before. I'm asked "life questions" and about what it's like to be a wife and mother. About my experiences after university, what it was like to be pregnant and about parenting. And I have things to say, which is strange because though I feel very much so like an adult, I don't feel like I should have insight to share. But I am a couple of stages ahead of the students and I've been where they are. So I guess that makes me somewhat of an expert. Weird. Maybe in my next stage I'll feel comfortable with that.

All these phases come together in our house. And it's really cool. The students posses great life and vitality while Audrey brings happiness and ease and I hope Ryan and I contribute wisdom (or at least life experience) and encouragement. It's a great meeting of seasons and we can all learn from each other. We need to be reminded that life consists of many parts and that each posses its own difficulty and joy. Audrey learns to crawl while the students learn about ethics and Ryan and I learn about being adults. And we're better people for doing it all together.