Our daughter moved away from home yesterday. One of numerous moving-aways over the years. First, she was off to the university in Bremen. Then off to do her Masters in Edinburgh. Off to work in Vienna. Now off to do her PhD in Hamburg. Each time it was difficult to see her leave with her collection of suitcases and boxes, yet surely, we felt a sense of pride to see her go.
After a few years away, she would return for a few months to reorient herself and figure our what to do with her life. She would move back into her bedroom. She did her best to place her clothes, books, laptop and phone amongst the still filled cupboards and bookshelves of her childhood. Occasionally, she would also sit at her piano and tinker away at the keys. Those times were months of limbo between childhood and where-to-go-next.
This time she has left with a new self-assurance. Now she knows where she is going. It was her decision alone. There was no inner necessity to get on with her life. No demons in the background telling her to move on. This move was towards herself as an adult with purpose.
Most fittingly, she left behind an empty room. She got rid of everything in the room, but bed and piano. Those she took with her.
* This post is part of my "Growing Up & Growing Old" project.
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