She graduated!

Congrats to my niece, my brother's middle daughter, who graduated from Macalester College in Minneapolis-St. Paul on Saturday. I'm just so proud of this girl. She is now here with us in our apartment in New York, with all her college bangarangs in boxes and suitcases lined up in the hallway, while she looks for a place in, you guessed it, hipster Brooklyn! All the Gen Z kids are moving there. She's an anxious little bird this morning, because even though she and her two prospective roommates have all already landed jobs, all of them in the tech and finance industry, one of three just had her start date pushed back to next January, and so will not be able to afford to move with them after all. So now they've switched to looking for a two bedroom instead. My niece and her mom will be going to look at a place this afternoon. Crossing my heart and fingers and everything else it works out for them, otherwise my niece will have to move in with her aunt and uncle in Harlem till she can figure things out, not a cool start to post college life at all. Seems like only yesterday our girl was sitting at our kitchen counter in the midst of the throngs at Thanksgiving, writing her college essays and supplements. Life comes at you fast—don't blink! So now we have a houseful again, my brother's ex (with whom I have a lovely congenial friendship) and their two kids, with my brother having left to fly home to Jamaica this morning. The rest of us will endeavor to get our baby bird launched. Pray for lift off!