This Just Got Real

Today I booked my younger daughter's airline tickets to......EUROPE! She will be studying abroad all of Spring Semester and I won't see her for SIX months. We are both filled with excitement and anticipation for all her amazing adventures that are right around the corner and at the same time we are equally filled with sadness as we will miss each other SO much.  Neither one of us knows how we will make it being apart that long!  I know we will do it - but the thought of it is a bit overwhelmingly sad right now.  When I emailed my daughter a copy of the tickets she called me right away.  She was happy and sad.  Me too. We both said, "This just got real!" The happy part is really happy though.  My daughter's University has a sister University in Europe.  My daughter pays the same tuition as if she were spending the semester in-state but instead of studying Art 188 at her University here - she gets to study Art 188 in Europe.  She gets to take Field trips with her professor to Barcelona and to the Louvre in Paris. She will get to see all the masterpieces first hand. Her Rise and Fall of Hitler class will take her to Germany and Poland.  Her Economics and Sustainability class will take her to Norway and Sweden. Her Political Science class will be taught by an Ambassador to the United Nations.  All her classes will have so much more meaning, so much more depth, so much more excitement.  It is really an opportunity of a lifetime.  And so...the airline tickets are booked.  This Just Got Real!