Future Shock

I have seen the future, and it scares me.

We took C to see Cinderella at the high school this past weekend. It was the typical high school production (D had a critical eye on everything, until I told him to shush because the kids were so enthusiastic and when he was in high school plays I’m sure it wasn’t any better), with the high school orchestra providing the music.

No, being in a high school wasn’t what caused the shock. It was the reaction of the teenagers afterward that made me shudder to think of C in ten years. The girls were weeping (I’m assuming because they were seniors and this was their last show) and hugging each other like they were heading off to war, never to be seen again.

I’m not against emotion – heck, I even got a little misty eyed my senior year of high school during my last home game of the basketball season. But viewed through the lens of twenty years of perspective, it seems a bit misplaced. I realize, to those girls, this felt like the end of something special that would never be duplicated. And maybe it won’t. But for some, college should provide them different experiences that feel just as (if not more) special.

What really made me shudder was the thought that in 8 short years, C will be in high school. She’ll become one of those hormonal, overly emotional teenagers. And I will not know how to handle that phase. Oh sure, she promises she’ll still like us, but I was a teenager once, I know the drill. The eye rolls, the dramatic sighs, the Academy Award winning sad looks (although we get those sometimes now, should I be scared?)….and she’ll want nothing to do with D or me….