Oh great! I'm already emotional at the thought of my kid graduating this year and leaving the wild world of Atlanta Club Soccer - then I read that!
So I'll add my two cents...
I will also miss those drives to and from practices or games or out of state tournaments. Those drives got longer and further away as she advanced up levels to where sometimes we actually had to fly not drive. From the time she was 6 until the day she leaves for college, any time in a car (or plane) with her has been a complete blast or a great opportunity to delve into the mind of my kid.
This fall, I will finally break the promise I made to a snaggle toothed 6 year old that I would always be at her games. I've barely made it - I've rearranged travel plans for work to keep that promise - and thankfully I've never missed a game. It ends this year because once she goes off to play in college, I can't make those weeknight games - I can stream them thanks to the university athletic department's app - but it won't be the same. She says she knows I'll watch and it's OK. But it won't be the same - not to me.
I will miss watching her with her 'sisters' on the field. The club teammates she has are her second family and she loves them, she will fight for them figuratively and literally if any opponent dares to foul or hurt any one of them. She knows they have her back and she has theirs. I will miss that level of trust that this group of girls she calls her teammates have. I will miss the trust I have in them that they are the most reliable, dependable, honest group she could associate with. Once she leaves the nest, we won't get to know who she plays with or who her friends are unless she brings them home. I will miss getting to know the kids and their parents.
I will miss - although I hope we won't drift away due to circumstance - the parents of these girls with whom I've become friends and grown to love, too. My fellow soccer peeps - the ones we swap kids with to take to and fro; plan meals, imbibe at out of town events - that crew - my people - my friends. We've rallied together through illnesses, deaths of parents, injury scares and general life as we know it as adults. They are my second family - I want to keep them!
I will miss the excitement and anticipation before a big game or tournament final. That moment watching these girls so full of life and promise and hope - just waiting to play the game they love.
I will miss watching her play with her high school classmates - many of whom she's known and played with since those toothless days.
I will miss watching her play. She's grown and developed into an amazing athlete and weathered many injuries and disappointments but learned from them. She didn't start at a high level but she will finish there. She and her teammates made the journey so worth the ultimate results because they earned every spot up the ladder of this crazy world of youth soccer. I will miss the journey - the reflecting back on where she came from and where she's going now.
But mostly, I will miss her.
And dammit someone pass me the Kleenex . .