Happy 16th Birthday!!!

My son is 16 today!! OMG!! Sixteen years old!! He still has to complete his online drivers education course before he can take his driving test, so he won't be going to do that today. But soon...very soon! Maybe in a week or two--and then he will have to go through that awful stressful situation of driving for an examiner and getting rated on his every move. Aahh! Remember that? I don't envy him! I do know that he should practice parallel parking a lot more before he goes--one of his friends failed that more than once! I will write about it all, and I will especially write about how I feel when I give him the keys and he drives alone for the very first time. OMG! I cannot believe that this day has arrived!!! He says that he wants to take a "road trip" alone once he gets his license. I am leaning more toward a day out alone, or a few hours out alone! But it does remind me of that awesome feeling of freedom when you first drive alone. Those of us who have driven for years sometimes get bogged down in the drudgery of it all. Sometimes we groan and complain if we have to drive somewhere, don't we? But remember that feeling, when getting in the car ALONE and driving to the store ALONE was about the BEST feeling in the whole wide world?!! My son is just days away from experiencing this feeling for the first time. It is both scary AND exciting, coming from a parental point-of-view. And I know that every minute that he is out on the road, I will be sitting at home worrying and watching the clock. I still cannot believe that I am on the OTHER side of this whole equation!! Mom and Dad, now I FINALLY am beginning to understand how you felt when I was this age!! It is a very different feeling when you are waiting at home for a teenager to return safely, and I know that the thought will never even cross his mind--he will be having so much fun enjoying his new freedom that he won't give a single thought to how I feel about it all!! And that, my friends, is the whole ball game: we remember what it was like to be their age, but they have NO clue what it is like to be us!! Happy Birthday, Son!! Even though I may embarrass you by saying it, I love you and hope that you have a wonderful day!! :)