A father and soon-to-fly-away daughter enjoy a travel adventure north of the U.S. border.
By Bobby Ross Jr. | The Christian Chronicle
TORONTO — “A six-hour layover, eh?”
I posted that wisecrack on Facebook as my 17-year-old daughter, Kendall, and I awaited a connecting flight.
It was early afternoon on a snowy, late winter day at Toronto Pearson International Airport. My youngest child and I were in the middle of a four-city, 20-hour travel adventure that was part work and part something deeper.
The work part is easy to explain: I was chasing stories — as I love to do — for The Christian Chronicle.
The something deeper part requires more explanation: I was trying — as much as possible — to create memories that will sustain me (and keep the tears from overwhelming me) as my baby bird grows up and flies away.
In just a few months, this intelligent young woman — who is every bit as sassy, charming and fun to be around as her mother and every bit as driven, argumentative and (sometimes) insecure as her father — is leaving home. She’s decided to attend Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif.
I couldn’t be more proud of her.
She studied hard, made top grades and was honored as one of her high school’s valedictorians. She joined our home congregation, the Edmond Church of Christ in Oklahoma, on mission trips to Mexico, Nicaragua, Utah and Colorado. She starred in school plays and excelled in debate. She taught herself to knit and worked at a yarn store. In fact, she made me a black cap for this trip.
She plans to major in political science and history and then, at some point, become president of the United States.
In my mind, though, she’s still the little girl with a red hair bow who would stand by the bathroom door and watch me shave. She’d see the white cream on my cheeks and pretend I was Santa Claus. “Daddy, will you buy me a present?” she loved to ask.
This column appears in the June 2017 print edition of The Christian Chronicle.
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