What a fun, hectic couple of weeks it’s been. And we’ve got several even more hectic weeks to come. This week is the first of our three graduations in May. Our younger twin daughter has finished all her work at the University of Colorado – Boulder and is set to graduate with dual degrees in Linguistics and Integrative Physiology. She’s battled all sorts of adversity, including being displaced from her apartment during the Fall semester and having to find alternative living arrangements for the rest of the school year, all while juggling the craziness that is college. She’s done an amazing job of handling the opportunities and challenges presented to her, and I’m bursting with pride.

Only four of the Hectic Family are going to make it to the graduation. The three high-schoolers had to stay for track meets. One of our daughters is in Ireland on a school-sponsored trip. Our oldest is just settling into her new job, and couldn’t get time off. Three of us are driving from our Hectic Base in Kansas while our other twin daughter is driving to Omaha, flying to Denver, and then we’ll meet her at the airport. While we would prefer to have everybody here, the five of us at the graduation will celebrate like crazy.

Next week, our older son will graduate from High School. We’re still not sure who’s going to be there, but we’ll do a good job of celebrating that milestone as well. At this point we don’t have his graduation party planned, since track has taken center stage for him this year. He also wants to go party hopping on graduation night. We’re sort of planning something later with several of his friends.

The following week the majority of the Hectic Household will travel to Storm Lake, IA to attend our other twin daughter’s graduation. She’ll have completed her coursework and will receive dual degrees in Biology and Spanish. She also has most of a degree in Psychology and quite a bit towards a Chemistry degree. While seating isn’t limited at Boulder, Buena Vista University is a smaller university and we may have to scrounge up tickets if everybody goes as planned.

It does strike me that, as a family, we really value education. Hectic Mom is a physician, and I have an MBA. At least two of our daughters are planning on graduate degrees in the near future, and a couple more are planning them more long term. Eventually it wouldn’t surprise me if the majority of the kids get post-graduate degrees of one sort or another. 

The other think that really hit me is how the tempo of our lives will change with these three graduations. Three of our kids will no longer be on the August-May school calendar. Even if they pursue graduate degrees, they will be more like the working world, where the summer months are pretty much like the other months. Our oldest son has signed with the U.S. Army Reserves, so in between his college years, he’ll have military training. That means that four of our eight kids will no longer be guaranteed vacations in the summer. No more assurances that they will come home for weeks at a time.

That’s a bit of a culture shock, quite honestly.

We’ve always had the knowledge that in a few months everybody would be home for a while. Despite the fact that they have all been busy, and the cars are constantly coming and going down the driveway, we always knew that the house would be full of laughter, lively discussions, and good-natured banter. It looks like those days are going to be fewer and farther between.

I’m just not sure I’m ready for that change.

I’ve always wanted my kids to be independent. Even when they were being independent and driving me crazy, I always consoled myself with the thought that those actions would lead to their future success. But now I’m riding in the van on the way to the first of these graduations and the reality that life is changing dramatically is setting in.

While I’ve had one daughter on her own for over two years, it’s been in phases with several months in England, several months back near home (living at my Mom’s), followed by nearly a year in the New York city metro area. It’s taken me this long to get used to her being away from home, having infrequent visits, and having to deal with crises long distance. It’s funny how even the simplest things can seem insurmountable when I can’t just “run over” and help fix them. Trying to articulate how to fix high tech equipment, stoves, and dripping faucets takes on a whole new level of difficulty when you have to deal with poor cell connections, a lack of tools, and a lack of basic knowledge (on both sides of the phone). It’s been one thing to do this for one kid, but now I’m facing the prospect of being the pit crew for three out-of-college kids who are planning on potentially being all over the globe.

On the other hand, I’m excited for all the amazing adventures that are in store for my kids. As I sit through their university and departmental graduations, I’m always enthralled by all the cool stuff that could be studied. I sometimes wish that I could go back to school and study a host of things, from molecular biology to micro-blogging to economics to marketing to communications to psychology. When I think about where they stand on the edge of their tomorrows I honestly envy them.

More than anything else, I’m amazed at all they’ve accomplished. It’s really exciting.

And sometimes terrifying.