Like most parents with graduating seniors, I have been thinking about Jeremy's graduation for the last month or so.

All the invitations have been sent, plans are made for the after-graduation reception and, it seems, in less than two weeks, my youngest son will be graduating high school, no matter how hard I try to postpone the in-evitable.

It has been a bittersweet ride for me. At the same time I've been planning his graduation party, I've been planning his going away party.

Family and family friends will not only be celebrating this important milestone in his life with red, silver and black streamers and balloons, they will also be giving him a send-off of sorts with red, white and blue table decorations.

Jeremy will be leaving for Basic Training for the National Guard 17 days after his graduation. It has been a roller coaster of emotion for me -- literally.

Monday, we spent the afternoon shopping for party decorations.

We laughed and joked as we picked out the balloons and streamers that would celebrate 13 (actually 14) years of education -- he was held back in the second grade. But every time I would begin looking at the table decorations -- the red, white and blue dinner plates, napkins and table covers -- my eyes would well up with tears, and I would come up with some kind of excuse not to purchase them.

"We'll wait until payday," I'd tell him. Or, "Let's go see what the other store has."

I know that this week, I will have to finish my shopping list. I'd just rather do it alone. That way, if I have tears running down my face when I get to the checkout stand, it will be a stranger who thinks I've simply lost my mind, not a young man who feels an overwhelming need to comfort me.

It's been a year since Jeremy asked if he could come and spend his senior year with us. It's been one of the best years I can remember, despite the mess on the couch he now uses as his filing cabinet, and his inability to comprehend the concept of washing dishes, or turning on the vacuum.

I wouldn't change any of it. Not the antelope hunting trip we took to Wyoming last October or the hours we spent driving the county roads, looking for deer, or pheasants or rabbits. I will never forget the many camping and fishing trips -- and even the countless hours we spent adrift on the lake in a broken-down dilapidated boat.

I suppose every mother and father who is graduating their youngest child must be going through the same empty-nest feeling that I have been experiencing. This is my second go-around with it. Jeremy went to live with his Dad when he was nine. His older brother joined the Coast Guard two years later -- and then Jeremy came home.

One thing I know for sure, it doesn't get any easier the second time around.

My blessings go out to the graduates and their parents around the area. Our children have moved on. They are now young men and women starting a life of their own, I just hope they keep in mind that Mom and Dad may just be a little weepy when the day finally arrives. It's only natural -- they have watched a small seed grow into a beautiful flower. It's an emotional experience.