The Pick-Up/Drop-Off Lane of Life

On Growing Up, Letting Go, and Choosing What Comes Next

I was walking the dog with my youngest today, our new daily summer goal, along the path that winds across the playgrounds, walkways and the parking lot of her old elementary school. 

Nothing unusual about our voyage, but today something inspiring caught my eye. The pick-up/drop-off lane, freshly repainted, stared back at me, bright and bold, in preparation for the freshness of a brand new school year.

And it literally stopped me in my tracks….

All three of my daughters went through this school from kindergarten through 12th grade. It was the backdrop for a wide range of experiences. A place layered with it all—friendships gained and lost. Chaotic classrooms. Broken arms. Hard lessons. The trauma of masks worn behind plexiglass. Shooter Lockdown drills and scares. And still, the pride of talent shows married with the joy of countless spirit days and growing wiser through learning, reading, and growing.

It all happened within those walls.

I’ve driven that lane in every season of motherhood, sleep-deprived, while taking conference calls, rushed, hopeful, with a car full of class party decorations, proud, and teary-eyed. 

Yet, the chapter still ended, as it should, and we moved on to all the challenges and joy that middle and high school bring. It is a relic of a society, a secret club, that we no longer are members of. Halls are now filled with new learners, growers and their experiences will be their own on this journey of being a “little.”

Meanwhile, I have one off to University in the fall, and it is gutting me. Another comes behind her, a rising senior, and I know that I have yet another year of celebrating then letting go. 

Another childhood in the rearview. Another chapter of a well written book now closed. 

And the youngest, on the cusp of realizing how tough the world can be, with the shimmery shade we covered the ugly with slowly slipping down to a reality mixed both with light and dark and goals and dreams.

Time doesn’t just fly, it sneaks up on you. One day you’re buckling them into booster seats, and the next you’re walking the dog and realizing this place that once held your whole world now holds only echoes of a past gone too fast.

Just as we were about to keep walking, something pulled me back.

The pick-up/drop-off lane. The metaphor it represented.

Because isn’t that the quiet work of life? 

Letting go of what no longer fits. Choosing who we want to become next.

We drop off versions of ourselves that we’ve outgrown. The ones who doubted, who hustled for worth, who tried to control it all and we evolve into picking-up someone new. Someone a little more sure. A little more grounded. A little more ready. Someone with the courage to embrace the change that is around and before us.

That lane didn’t just serve my daughters. It served me. It taught me how to let go with love. How to trust teachers, routines, the process and eventually, trust them.

There were days I cried after drop-off and yet so many days that I watched the clock, counting down to pick-up, just to see their faces again. To hear their stories. To soak in the magic of whatever wonderful thing had happened that day.

And now, those days are behind me.

But as I share in Bring Your Big Energy, the habits we carry are our pick-ups and drop-offs too.

Some served us in one season and quietly hold us back in the next. Some we created to survive, and now we’re ready to thrive. Some we never chose in the first place, and it’s time to let them go.

This is the work. Of motherhood. Of growth. Of Big Energy.

To pause. To notice. To choose what we’re keeping and what we’re done carrying.

That day, I left behind another layer of who I used to be.

And I picked up a little more peace. A little more space. A little more energy for what’s next.

What are you ready to drop off and what version of you is waiting to be picked up?

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