8 years ago on the same day our flight landed at New York airport. Our final destination New Jersey was still one and a half-hour drive away which we covered by taxi.
For the last week, I was quite busy preparing for the journey. While children’s ongoing finals occupied me, I hopped from one room to another decluttering and organizing every shelf and placing naphthalene balls in every nook and corner and in the wardrobes to repel insects and mites. Every day turned into a long day and I hardly got a good night’s sleep. My mind drifted from one thing to another till the last moment we left for the airport.
As the plane took off, part of me was excited to have a view of New York City from atop the empire state building but another part (the mother in me) was uncertain and a little apprehensive about children. New place, new school, new environment. Will they be able to deal with changes and adjust to a new culture? Adapting to a new education system and making new friends, will be a start from scratch for them.
All these recurring thoughts burdened my mind. To turn them off I closed my eyes and didn’t realize when I fell into a deep slumber.
Now when I look back, I learn how trivial and worthless my worries were and I was exaggerating them by mulling over them.
My kids never faced any problems I worried for. They are physically and mentally more flexible and blend into a new environment or harmonize to changes more easily and quickly than we think.
But to be a mother is to be both a warrior and worrier simultaneously.