A Place to Rest Is Here

I have written a message for the school newsletter.
It is a message for the graduates, requested by my daughter's high school.

With only a few months left,
I thought graduation was still a long way off,
but it has suddenly become real,
and I found myself feeling a bit sentimental.

Looking back, when the COVID-19 state of emergency was declared,
and the whole city went quiet,
my daughter entered junior high school.

Because she is shy,
she had a hard time adjusting to school,
and couldn't make any friends.

When that same daughter became a high school student,
she told me she reached out to a child who was alone
and became friends with them.
She said it was because she knows all too well the loneliness of being by oneself.

Seeing her profile as she muttered that, I was truly happy.
I felt relieved,
knowing that my daughter's heart had truly grown.

In her high school life, she faced various worries,
like not getting along with friends,
finding school boring, or not understanding her studies.

There were days she thought hard
and faced them head-on,
and days she came home crying...

Even so, as a mother,
I have clearly seen her effort to move forward
one step at a time.

There were nights I couldn't sleep, worrying on my own,
while wanting to worry together,
or being pushed away when I wanted to be there for her...

From here on,
as my daughter enters the phase of preparing to leave the nest,
there will be days she feels anxious again,
and nights she feels restless and cannot sleep.

Someday, she will overcome that,
learn to control her emotions little by little,
and begin to walk on her own.

As a mother, it is a future that is both lonely
and something to look forward to.

I want to tell her that a place to return to is here,
come home when you are tired,
a place to rest is here,
it will be okay.

I want to be the kind of person who can say that with open arms.