I’m pretty sure she still lives here because I continue to find little piles of dirty clothes on the floor in her bedroom.  They never quite seem to make it to the hamper five feet away.  I can tell her bed is slept in sometimes.  And the shampoo is still disappearing at an alarming rate.  There are still phone calls from friends who say they have seen her, and the mail I piled up for her on the kitchen counter was opened at some point.  So, I think she must come around sometimes.

But I never see her anymore.

I’m talking about my daughter who recently graduated from high school.  The phantom woman/child.

Old enough to schedule her own life, young enough to assume mom will wash her clothes if she waits long enough.

When a kid turns 16, that coveted driver’s license turns him or her into a member of a new species: “The Moving Targets”.  They become little baby tornadoes, constantly changing directions, sometimes stirring up trouble, usually joining forces with other baby tornadoes to become major storms. 

We parents are always trying to keep our little tornadoes separate from bigger, worse ones.  But even more difficult, we try to keep track of where they have been and where they are going.  Since they don’t even know where they’re going to be five minutes from now, they think we are idiots for asking.  We think they’re hiding something because their answers are vague.

Now my little tornado has graduated from high school.  She is working (sometimes), going fun places far from home without me (no fair), learning how to budget her money (egads!) and read maps (never thought it would happen).  She had to learn to find the Houston airport by herself and figure out how to go up the skinny windy ramp to the parking garage.  And she found Galveston all by herself.  The back way.  I believe she might be ready to leave the nest.

She has become an independent young woman, and I know I must let her spread her wings, even though the world is a scary place and the “mom” in me is screaming silently for her to be careful.

There’s just one huge question I still have.  Will she be able to find a laundromat?