Leaving Home

Leaving Home by Katie Armiger

I put the locket that you game me in a shoebox
With all my favorite high school pictures in a Ziplock
So when I think I'm by myself I know that I'm not

Thanks for the extra cash
Please take good care of dad
And I promise you I'll call along the way

Mama, don't you cry
I'm moving on, but this ain't goodbye
We might be miles apart, I'll carry you in my heart
I'll send you kisses on the phone
But mama, I'm leaving home

In only four months, I’ll be coming home for Christmas
I bet that all the time will fly, you know how it does.
Maybe I’ll go and find a nice guy and fall in love
I’ll do my best to make you proud
Keep my room the same for now
Just in case these big ol’ dreams don’t work out

Mama, don’t you cry
I’m moving on, but know this ain’t goodbye
We might be miles apart, I’ll carry you in my heart
I’ll send you kisses on the phone
But mama, I’m leaving home

We knew this day would come
And as bad as we wanna hold on
We both know it’s time to let go (let go)

Mama, don’t you cry
I’m moving on, but know this ain’t goodbye
Mama, don’t you cry
I’m moving on, but know this ain’t goodbye
We might be miles apart, I’ll carry you in my heart
I’ll send you kisses on the phone
But mama, I’m leaving home
I’m leaving home
I’m leaving home

I played this song on my ipod for my mom on her birthday with some senior pictures she has not seen of me before. It brought tears to both of our eyes because I think it hit both of us that the day we thought would never get here is so much closer then we think. Less than 3 months really. I can remember thinking I would never get to my senior year, now its here and the reality that I will be moving out on my own this summer is really begining to sink in. The fact I won't see my mom and dad everyday, the fact that I have my own place to take care of, the fact I've grown up. Moving out is going to be extremely hard on both my mom and I because we have done everything together. She never misses games, we spent many weekends at tournaments, late night practices and after I leave she won't have that anymore and neither will I. I will be extremely emotional on graduation day just because I know how hard it is going to hit my mom.
As I look at places to live and begin buying things for it it will build up immensely in my mind. I have already been accepted into Texas A&M and that reality has already passed but all the things that come with going to college have not set in. A lot of times I wonder just how am I going to be able to handle all of it by myself.

Why Try?

Crushes are common, first loves happen, you get butterflies when you get a certain look, and wearing his letterman jacket is a huge ordeal! High school relationships in a literal sense are completely pointless because realistically only four percent tend to actually work out to marriage. Why stress over having a boyfriend or girlfriend when in all actuality it will probably end in unessecary tears, heartbreak that is not worth it at all, and humiliation? If you do not date seriously in high school you do not have to worry about these emotions, you do not really have to worry about rejection. You do not have to listen to your parents lecture to you on the level of seriousness your getting into, we all hate listening to that speech. The movies that always lead you to believe that it works out in the end perfectly, we know statistically those are not real. They only create an image in your mind to make you think that in order for it to be a happy ending it has to end just like that. You run out on the football field and kiss him in the rain. But sometimes it is worth it, completely worth it. So who cares what people think of your "serious relationship" if you think it is real put everything you have into it, do not hold back because you just might end up being that four percent that prevails in the end. Do not let it all slip away from when it just could have been the thing you have been waiting for.