My oldest daughter and fellow World of Warcraft player (seen above on her troll rogue with me on my blood elf hunter) turned 18 years old today and it’s definitely a day to celebrate! I remember when she was a baby thinking how neat it was that she would be graduating high school and turning 18 in 2020 and how far away that date was, and now suddenly that date is here. Obviously, I could never have imagined her senior year of high school would be drastically altered by a pandemic, but I am grateful that the home schooling gave me more time with her and her sister.
This coming Friday after this milestone birthday of 18, my daughter will be hitting another milestone as she heads off to college. She will be living on campus and although the college is only 45 minutes from my house, I will obviously see her much less than I do now. She’s already stated that she won’t be coming home every weekend and while I understand her desire for freedom and her need to spread her wings, I’m still going to miss her terribly. Her younger sister will still be with me for half the week and that’s a wonderful thing, but we’re both going to be a bit lost without my oldest being home all the time.
My oldest heading off to college is a necessary but difficult adventure for all of us. In Warcraft, she’s proven herself to be a much more skilled player than I, so I’m sure in life on her own, she will outshine me in many ways and triumph where I’ve stumbled. She’s excited about this new adventure she’s embarking on and I’m excited for her. I’m trying very hard not to let her know too much how sad I’ll be because I’m sure she already knows. It’s not fair for me to make her feel guilty about leaving when it’s something she obviously needs to do.
With my oldest busy with college, she won’t have as much time to play World of Warcraft and I’ll miss being able to team up with her on our adventures in game as regularly as we do now. My house and the world of Azeroth are going to feel a lot more empty without her in them and I’m certain I’ll be a crying puddle on the floor Friday evening when I get home from dropping her off at college. I might be a puddle for the entire weekend actually because I won’t even have her sister with me until Sunday afternoon. I’m already a bit of a puddle now because she and her sister are back with their dad until tomorrow, so I may need a bucket to hold myself together soon…
However, I am hopeful that I won’t be or feel utterly alone now that I have the Twitter Warcraft player group in my life. I won’t want to get anyone down by whining or being bummed in chat, but hopefully just being with them doing stuff will lift my spirits and remind me that I’m not alone in Azeroth and beyond.
The other day I expressed sadness to my daughter that she wouldn’t be in Shadowlands with me taming cool new pets or exploring the new areas and she said, “Hey, you got a crew now, you’ll be fine.” So obviously she has great faith in the Twitter crew to keep her “poor old mother” from becoming too lost and to save my butt if necessary because she’s no longer available to do so. I know it’s comforting and reassuring to her that I’ve found friends in Warcraft because she worries about me sometimes and I don’t want her to be worrying about me when she’s got so much else going on.
Life has shown me repeatedly that time moves faster than we like and that we need to cherish all the good moments we have because they never last long enough. While I am anxious, nervous, and uncertain about this new upcoming adventure in our lives, I also understand that change is a part of life and that somehow or another we’ll be okay. I’ve gone through fire more times than I can count and I have a Phoenix tattoo to symbolize that I always rise again and come out stronger than before.
Srinity 