What Could Have Been

Tonight, most of Cheyann's classmates are enjoying the company of each other at a Dude Ranch - the culminating field trip of their middle school years commemorating all of their many memories together. Cheyann, on the other hand, is spending this weekend on a locked down adolescent psychiatric unit eerily reminiscent of One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest. While her classmates are pondering which bathing suit to wear white water rafting, she is wondering what item on her floor she can convert to a sharp, while her classmates worry about sunburns, she is worrying about how best to spin her life story in order to get the Docs to sign off on her level. While her classmates cope with sore muscles unused to horseback riding, she is coping with badly scarred limbs and an extremely bruised heart. I want to be laughing and chatting by the campfire with the other 8th grade parents, reliving fond memories and sharing the excitement of upcoming high school adventures, not wandering through the bowels of a rundown building trying to find my daughter to deliver a bag of her clothes with no ties or elastics..and maybe a few packs of gum. The contrast is wide, and my heart is aching for what this night could have been. I know that the journey we are on is a different one, but just this once, I yearn for the well-traveled path...and the campfire.