When Your Baby Graduates College and the Milestone Belongs to Them and Somehow to You Too

My youngest child, Jake, graduated college, and while the past few days were very much about celebrating him, I keep thinking about what graduation really represents.

Graduations are endings. Happy endings; the kind you hope and pray for. But endings just the same. I remember people crying at nursery school graduation because their babies were no longer babies. I remember seeing tears at all the graduations in between then and now.

But I have never really been the person crying at those milestones. Every time my kids have finished one stage, I have usually felt ready for them to move into the next one. Not because I didn’t love the stage they were in; I did. And while I tried to enjoy each part as much as I could while we were in it, I could also always see when they were ready for what came next.

And Jake was very, very ready to be done with college. In the best possible way.

He got everything out of it. He lived it fully, made incredible friends. and he grew up. And after graduation, he got on a plane to Europe with childhood friends for a few weeks to celebrate, explore, and have the kind of adventure that belongs to this exact moment in life.

So no, I wasn’t crying because I wanted to hold on to college. I don’t. I am happy for him. So proud of and excited for him. Ready for him to take the next step.

But this milestone does feel different. When your baby graduates college, it is not just another graduation. It is the end of a very long chapter.

The end of having kids in school. The end of college calendars. The end of tuition payments. The end of move-ins and move-outs. The end of this whole era of raising children through school and getting them to the other side. And while the accomplishment belongs to Jake, there is a piece of this milestone that belongs to us too.

I kept thinking about my dad crying at my college graduation. At the time, I don’t think I fully understood it. Now I do. Getting me through college was a huge accomplishment for him. Financially, physically, emotionally... all of it. I think he felt like he had completed this enormous part of the job, and there I was, on the other side of it. I understand that feeling now in a way I could not have understood then.

For me, this also brings me back to one of the reasons I started my coaching business. My original why was very practical. I wanted to create an income stream that could help cover college. That was before my oldest even went.

And now here we are. Three kids graduated from college, all of them on the other side with the gift of no loans and no college debt. That is not lost on me.

The official empty nest chapter probably begins in September, when Jake starts his job in New York. For now, he is off having his post-college adventure, and when he gets back, we will have a little more time with him before that next launch.

And we will make the most of it.

Because this milestone belongs to him. But somehow, it belongs to us too.