Milestones

Tomorrow my daughter is graduating from preschool. It's an important milestone regardless of what the critics might say. She'll carry the memory for years to come and it will be memorialized forever in pictures and video.

When we think about milestones it's often from the perspective of the participant. We remember our own graduation exercises, our first jobs, the first kiss, these things are etched into the permanent memory of our minds. What we often overlook is equally significant. Personal milestones are simultaneously moments for non-participants to be reminded of the joys of life. I'm not graduating from preschool tomorrow, but I will reflect on the first few years of my daughter's life and all that she has meant to me. I'll consider all the love, discipline, instruction, and conversation that we've enjoyed. I'll watch an epic movie in my mind that chronicles her life from birth up until this magical moment. Without life's milestones, I would have fewer opportunities to go through this mental and emotional exercise. Because of them, I get to regularly participate in some of life's greatest joys over and over again.

Consider this, every time someone around you experiences a milestone, you experience it with them. You have an opportunity to take part from your seat and from your own personal vantage point. You will see something much different than the person sitting next to you. You will see all the experiences and adventures that you've shared over the years with the person who is participating in the milestone. This becomes a mini-milestone of its own, something highly personal, exceptionally unique, that can never be recreated and will never be experienced by another human being in this lifetime. Your view is uniquely yours, and it provides an opportunity to celebrate and enjoy all that life is, through the accomplishments of others.

My daughter will graduate from preschool tomorrow, and in a very special, unique, one-of-a-kind way, so will I.