Marking a Milestone

Earlier this summer, my son John graduated from high school. Since then, his calendar has been filled with graduation parties, a summer basketball league, and just hanging out with friends. In late August, John will start college at Syracuse University in upstate New York. While I’m excited for him, I will really miss him.

Fortunately, I’ve seen my husband Mark, Sara, and two of my sisters successfully navigate this transition and create new bonds with their adult children. As John has grown, so has his interest in sports, history and travel. We decided to combine those interests with a special mother-son trip to London and Scotland this summer. John picked out most of the sights we’d visit, and I took care of accommodations.

We took our first ever e-bike rides across London when we realized that would be the fastest way from our Airbnb to the Tower of London and saw the musical Hamilton in West London’s theater district. We agreed that, like in the production of Hamilton we saw in Chicago in early 2018, King George is once again a show-stealing role.

Before we left, I was a little nervous about how this trip with John might go. But, reading British writer David Baddiel’s own accounts of travel with his adult children reminded me that this would be worth it. He writes of how his trip with his 19-year-old son to the U.S. was vastly different than his travels to Southeast Asia with his 23-year-old daughter. Tailoring those to their distinct interest created new opportunities to bond.

When this post goes live, we will be halfway through our trip, preparing to head up to Scotland. It’s a new country for us both and a chance to create a few more shared memories. Memories that will become more meaningful when John starts college later this summer.