Welcome to the final Five Minute Friday link-up of August!

If you’re new here, you can learn more about this wonderful online community and how the link-up works here.

This week’s FMF writing prompt is: BEHIND

Setting my timer for five minutes, and . . . GO. 

I know, I know . . . All of my posts lately have been about getting kids ready for college and preparing to be an empty nester. That’s just the season of life I’m in right now and it’s kind of all-consuming, so what else can I say? 😉

This past Monday, I drove a van load of my daughter’s things to her new off-campus apartment on the southside of Chicago. She actually drove herself the night before to collect some belongings she had stored at a friend’s place and on campus during the summer.

As we took trip after trip up the steep flight of stairs to her second-floor dwelling and kept filling up the tiny room she would be sharing with another girl, I told her over and over again, “This is too much stuff. You don’t need all of this. I’m going to have to take some things back with me. There’s just not enough room for all of it.”

But she continued to assure me, “It will be fine!”

She didn’t want to leave any of it behind.

So instead, I left her behind with an apartment full of boxes, suitcases, and overstuffed bags. And I drove home in an empty van, just me, myself, and I.

Now that I’ve been home for a few days, I’ve been wondering, “Why do I feel like I’m the one who has been left behind?” She’s moving forward, embracing this new school year and all that it has to offer, and I’m still here folding laundry and defrosting chicken in a quiet house.

Although she did text me yesterday: “When you’re in Chicago in two weeks to drop off my brother at school, can you come get some of my stuff?” 🙂

STOP.

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Join us as we freewrite for five minutes flat on the writing prompt, BEHIND. Then visit your link-up neighbor to read their post and leave an encouraging comment: