Another Adventure For Emily

MY DAUGHTER LEFT for graduate school this morning. Sheryl and I miss her a lot already. She's a big girl and off to another big adventure, in a life already filled with big adventures. Emily is attending Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y. She wants to play the oboe for a living. You would be foolish to tell her she won't.

She graduated from Western Illinois in May and went to Blue Lake to work, then was was home for about 10 days before taking off again. She came to the store and practiced her oboe, and the back room was filled with that high and drifting sound.

Ginny and Emily, to top of the world, or Second String Music.

I got used to her coming over. She and some buddies came to a Cheeseburger show and I drove them home, they had so much fun. She and her friend Ginny Helmer came to the house the other night and sat by the backyard fire pit, giggling like the longtime friends they are. We took her to Tiramisu and she walked through Woodland Cemetery with the dogs, and now she's gone, embarked on the 15-hour drive, not looking back in the least.

Western Illinois is only an hour and change away. Rochester is much different. We won't see her much. She is all grown up and has the whole world ahead of her, and my pride busts at the seams.

Go get 'em, Big Girl.