LETTING GO
WRITTEN BY ELENA SCRIVO
Y
ou are three years-old. You are wearing your red velvet jumper and white tights and black Mary Janes. It is early fall. I take you outside for some pictures. You run away as I try to capture your image. You are laughing and smiling. I am laughing, too, as I beg you to stay still for one picture. You don’t listen, but you turn and look behind you every once in a while and smile as I try to keep up with you. You are twenty-one years old. I am still chasing after you and trying to keep up with you. It is, I have come to realize, a losing battle. I have learned that the hardest part of being a parent is the letting go. From the first moment I held you, I had to let you go. I allow the nurses—people I have never met— to hold you and examine you and tell me you are just fine. It is just the first of many times I will hand you over to complete strangers. I will do it again and again, and each time is not any easier, but actually harder. I send you to preschool, kindergarten and high school. And finally, college. I get closer and closer to the day when you will not return to me.
Make notes in the margin. Highlight the important sentences to remember what you’ve learned. Change the setting of your story. Travel and experience new places. Introduce new characters. Some will be friends, and some will be villains, but each will allow growth and development. I hope there is romance, but even more, I hope you find your one true love. Lastly, don’t be afraid of conflict in your story. You will grow and change and learn from it. Remember, you are not a static character, but a dynamic protagonist. I know I will never catch you. I’m not supposed to. I only hope that you will turn around and let me catch a glimpse of your smile and that you will read a chapter or verse to me from your book from time to time. But most of all, I hope we bound the book, so it is strong and durable to hold your precious story. SS
I used to think your father and I built the foundation and ground floor upon which you would build your own life. The succeeding floors were yours to add on from there. But lately, I’ve been thinking that we are bookmakers. We make the book cover and binding of a volume that holds the pages of your life. It will be up to you, the author, to fill those blank pages with your own story. You will make mistakes. Don’t erase them or cross them out.
Elena Scrivo is a Saratoga-based pharmacist specializing in long-term care. She is a graduate of Albany College of Pharmacy and lives in Queensbury with her husband, daughter and son. When she is not working or spending time with family and friends, Elena enjoys reading, writing and all the Capital Region and Adirondacks have to offer.
This is our first.... READER SUMMITED ESSAY Send your stories for possible submission to: cBushee@SaratogaPublishing.com with Short Story on the subject line. 300-500 words preferred 152 | SIMPLY SARATOGA | MAY/JUNE 2019
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