I was aware she had been applying for a different position with her company, one that would take her to another location, but I didn't know until yesterday that she had accepted one.
Instead of moving to a like-size plant in Missouri or Tennessee, she's joining the personnel at corporate headquarters. It is a move that will take her to one of the Midwest's largest metropolitan areas.
So many first reactions: "Wow! That is going to be a big change!" "I'm happy for her, but was hoping she would move closer, not further away." "Her commute is going to be a nightmare." "Glad it is her and not me." "All the work ahead of her just getting ready to move! I couldn't do it."
Well, of course I couldn't do it - now. But thinking about all the changes I made in my life when I was her age - it hardly fazed me. Which also got me thinking about how different things were between her maturing and mine.
My growing up world was one still firmly agrarian and traditional. None of the mommies worked outside the home - well, except for doing farm chores, of course. Even in high school it was generally accepted that the females would graduate (hopefully), get married and raise a family. (Some went to business school, but only a few got a college degree.) As my Dad advised, I took typing, shorthand and bookkeeping so I could get a job "in case something happened to your husband". (In truth, I took those courses because I had always wanted to be a secretary and work in an office.)
My granddaughter grew up in a home where both Dad AND Mom went to work everyday; where she not only wanted to get a job but expected to go to college.
So, while I imagine her life as she navigates all the changes, I will not doubt that she is able, capable and ready - after all, she is the one who, at age five said, "We can do it all."
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