RE: MS WRITE NOW -- Celebrating Graduation With the Poetic Tribute, "I Knew You When"

I Knew You When…

A Quasi-Poetic, Narrative of Tribute to My Beauteous Graduating Daughter

Created by:  Your Mama

Written in honor of your high school graduation – June 8, 2012

I knew you when you weren’t 18, more like zero and a half.

Measured in increments of joy and months of anticipation.

I knew you even before I met you; Kelsi beautiful and bright.

Your father uttered your name and we knew it was you.

I knew you when your biggest job was to get yourself born healthy-limbed and vigorously normal.

We examined you so closely it looked like an Area 51 alien abduction reenactment.

I knew you when a can of Diet Pepsi would determine a mighty birth story or resentment.

Your father’s break from coaching duties occurred a nanosecond before the doctor yodeled, “Let’s do this thing!” (Or something like that.)

I knew you when the whole of us only became that way because of your arrival.

Your world was Mama, Daddy, Sissy, Kitty, Krissy, and Sammy; it was enough for all of us.

I knew you when your perfect little feet were adorned with toenails the size of miniature seashells.

I carried you everywhere, unable to bear encasing those exquisite toddler toes in shoes.

I knew you when you had so many boo-boos it looked like “parental supervision” should be added to your Christmas wish list.

Kelsi the Adventurer seeking answers fearlessly incurring a few bruises along the way to finding your truth.

I knew you when your best friend tagged you as her “Comfy Companion.”

That rich, solidly-grounded relationship will forever nourish you and your Sissy.

I knew you when Olympic Gold for swimming and AllStars for basketball were in your “do it or bust” future.

Through painful discovery and gracious acceptance you learned you are so much more than the titles and judgments others bestow upon you.

I will always know you, my precious daughter, and our bond distinguishes me as a life-time achieving Mama, the only award that has ever mattered to me. 

I have reveled in the fact that I’ve had you all to myself for this first phase of your gifted life.

As you go forward into adulthood I will savor my memories of your development into this exquisite creature I see before me

Delighting in the accomplished woman you are destined to be.

Now the difference is I’ll be watching you from a bit farther away; always your safe harbor, now standing on the shore.

Forever waving my metaphorical pompoms as you take the journey to always knowing yourself.