Well, this is new

Friends, 2001

My daughter has gone driving with one of her best friends in the world, a 17-year-old boy who got his license a month ago. My husband said she could go. I went along with it, though my brain was screaming noooo. I have known this boy from the time he was a wild-haired toddler maneuvering a trike at a 2-year-old's birthday party. He and my daughter have been in class together since they were four, the class spending 3 weeks each school year at their school's farm, and then they went on to the same high school. They have seen each other through their mutual obnoxious, annoying stages to become really solid friends, the kind who can confide in and advise each other on heart things.

But this year, this young man transferred to another high school so he could play football. I miss having him at my daughter's school. I know his gentle, playful heart, plus he would always bring my girl right to her front door after late-running extracurricular events at school, or parties they both attended, or aimless rambles around the city with their friends. It was always a comfort to know he would bring her all the way home, that she wouldn't be traveling alone.

Now he and my daughter go to different schools, and find that they miss each other more than they realized they would. They took for granted all the years that they would just see each other at school every day. So they make an extra effort to get together these days.

And now this young man of whom I am so fond is driving! He has rather amazing parents who made him sign a contract covering who can ride in the car with him, speed limits to observe, car etiquette and so on. But still. I still see the little kid zooming around on the trike. It's like that commercial where the dad is handing his daughter the car keys and giving her the rules of the road, and what he sees in the driver's seat in front of him is his little girl in a frilly dress, not his self-assured teenager. I laugh every time I see that ad. I know how that dad feels!

Same kids, this year