Adolescence is a period of rapid changes. Between the ages of 12 and 17, for example, a parent ages as much as 20 years. (Anonymous)

My baby boy is going to be driving soon. I knew this day was coming. He’s been talking about it for the past year.

But it always seemed to be some far-off, almost imaginary thing. Like when he used to talk about wanting to be a fireman, or a policeman, or a garbage man. I could talk with pride to my friends and acquaintances (“My boy wants to drive soon.”) without ever having to think about what it really meant.

Suddenly, reality has arrived. That far-off ‘someday’ has become a real day on the calendar. My son turned 15 today, and we signed him up for the driving class and written test so that he can get his learner’s permit.

It scares me. It scares me that my son, my baby, is going to be driving out on the roads with all the crazy drivers and speeders and construction. It scares me that my son, my baby, is old enough to drive – he’s not my baby anymore, which also makes me older than I want to admit to. And it scares me that if this far-off, someday date came to be; that maybe some of the other ‘someday’s’ (like “someday he’s going to join the service,” “someday he’s going to be moving out on his own”) are also going to be “real days” soon.