Bueller, Bueller. . . ; or, This Mother's Day

While living here, our family has reached some milestones.

During our first year here, Boy 2 finished first grade and Boy 1 finished his first year of high school. The hubby and I celebrated 20 years of marriage.  And this week, Boy 1 turned 16 years old.

It's crazy how fast time flies. I don't know why this particular birthday has affected me so, but it has. A couple of times during the day, I found myself on the verge of tears. Why am I so emotional? He still has 2 years of high school left, so it's not like when I was 16, a junior and then senior in high school, getting ready to take on the world (that's what happened when you started 1st grade at age 5 way back in the 1970s).  We still have time. Yet. . . he is on his way to being an upperclassman next year, taking AP classes and the SAT and ACT, thinking about college visits and getting more and more of those thick envelopes in the mail chock-full of information from colleges. It's crazy.

For his 16th birthday, we went on a mom/son date to the movies. The night's feature was true to Throw-back Thursday:

And wow, did THAT make me nostalgic for the 1980s and got me thinking about my own high school experiences.

I can't believe that since we've been here, my son is half way done with high school.  I remember how high school seemed to drag on for me. I just wanted to be in college, wanted to leave my little town, and most of all wanted to be a grown up and on my own. Like most bonafide adults, I look back and am perplexed---why I was in such a rush to grow up? But I definitely was. That's what I remember most about high school---the restlessness, the waiting, the impatience, and feeling like life was zooming by and I was too young to take part of it.

I was 16 when I saw Ferris Bueller for the first time, and there I was Thursday night, sitting under the stars in Cuba, watching it again with my own 16 year old. I would have never, ever, in a million years guessed what the future would bring at his age. A teacher or librarian? Never! I was going to be a pharmacist. My granddad always liked to remind me that I once wanted to have a big house full of kids (pregnancy/childbirth and grown-up bills put the kibosh on that idea quickly). And living in Cuba, on an American military base? Are you serious???

I was so full of anxiety at his age---where was I going to go to college? What was going to happen to my circle of friends? Would we still be together in college? How could I stand to wait another five years to graduate college and be on my own?

Little did I know that, in the end, those questions really wouldn't matter once I really got to college. I changed schools after a year, changed majors three times, and changed my mind about some people in my life in the meanwhile. The friends I just knew would be there for me forever seemed to move on without me (or changed so much, I moved on without them), and some of the friends that I didn't hang out with often in high school have become my closest confidants today. I met some of the most important people in my life during a semester in Mexico, of all places. I ended a long time relationship and started a life-long romance. I quit worrying so much about the future and started living more in the present.

Raising a teenager is bittersweet. You relive a little of your own childhood, the good and the bad. You wish they would not make some of the same mistakes you made, yet you find yourself relieved that they seem to have a better head on their shoulders in many instances than you did at that age. At least that's my experience so far.

I guess my biggest wish for my son is that he doesn't live through his teen years trying to rush through to the next stage of life. After all, being a grown-up isn't all it's cracked up to be. In the wise words of John Hughes, via Ferris Bueller: "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

And Happy Mother's Day to all you mamas out there. It's the hardest job ever, but I always knew one way or another I would become a mom, and I'm glad 16 years ago I got that chance.