Day #147/365- I'm Fine. Just Fine. Perfectly Fine.

This afternoon I got this card in the mail. 

Cute huh?  Now for the history.  This isn't a new card.  This is a card that I sent to parents twelve years ago when I was a freshman in college!  Twelve years ago!  I didn't do so well (emotionally) my first month away from home.  I cried all the time and was really homesick. I basically talked to my mom on the phone at least three times a day-morning, noon and night, as a comfort to the new and chaotic craziness that had just become my college life.  Dad wasn't as good with the crying phone calls because he wanted to be able to instantly make it all better for his baby girl. So poor Mom was stuck with the brunt of the calls that first month because she would sit and listen as I wailed and sobbed and begged to be picked up.  You see, they didn't let me have a car my freshman year because they didn't deem it necessary.  I was there to study and get an education- I could take the bus if I needed to go somewhere.   

Mom and Dad were very firm about one thing. They made me put in one month straight at school before they would come and pick me up to take me home for a weekend.  I think they knew me too well (duh-they're your parents!) to know that letting me come home too soon would make me even more homesick and then I would want to go home every weekend (gosh they were smart!)  So I stuck it out and realized I wasn't going anywhere but where I was. I was going to have to make it work.  Each day got better and better.  Each day I made more and more friends and was smiling and laughing again.  Each day became more comfortable than the last.  I was adjusting. The crying stopped.

By the end of October, I was invited by one of the Fraternity guys (don't judge- they were nice guys!) to their Fall Homecoming dance. My roommate Melissa and other great friend Lisa were invited too so it worked out perfectly.  I took a picture from my college scrapbook page to give you a visual of us gals, all dolled up, far away from home and doing fine.  Just fine.  Perfectly fine.  

 Wow!  I sure had come a long way in two months and I needed to let Mom and Dad know that I was fine.  Just fine.  Perfectly fine.  Here is what I wrote on the inside of the card.  

I especially love where it says, "Don't forget that you have to come get me!" 

Okay, now that you know the history of the card, everything I say from here on out will make total sense.  Mom and I have had a special code with each other ever since I sent her and Dad this card twelve years ago.  Whenever things in life are going, um, not so well, but we are surviving and getting through it, we say, "I'm fine.  Just fine.  Perfectly fine."  And instantly we both flashback in our minds to my dreadful first month away from home.  All of a sudden, things seem a bit better because that first month away from home was really bad- it was not fine!  

The other day I was talking to Mom about all of the changes and differences that will occur this coming school year because we have a new principal.  I kept saying, "It will be fine.  Just fine.  Perfectly fine."  We both laughed.  And today I received the card!  She went and sent me BACK the card and told me I had to take very good care of it.  (I still can't believe she has kept it all of these years!!!)  We decided we will start a new tradition by sending the card back and forth through the mail when each other is going through a trying time.  We will "add" a message to the original card by using post-it notes.  I just love my Mom for coming up with this idea.  It is so special!  So here is her post-it message to me, on the same card that I wrote to her and Dad, twelve years ago (crazy!).  

Tonight, I am Soaking Up the Sunnyside of traditions.  I love them- the old and the new.  I am Soaking Up the fact that my Mom is my best friend and now we have one more thing that makes our bond even stronger.  I am finding happiness and joy in thinking back to my life twelve years ago and looking at where my life is now.  I am feeling so proud.  And even though I haven't found my Mr. Right or had children, I am still doing fine.  Just fine.  Perfectly fine.  And I'm okay with that.  :)