Just last week I took my daughter to the annual Father / Daughter Dance at St. Ursula’s school. What a fun night it was! We went to dinner with 15 – 20 of her classmates and their dads and occupied the entire back room of the restaurant. The girls sat at one table, the fathers at the other. The girls ran around, the fathers sat and talked. We finished dinner and off to the dance we went.
I don’t know how many of you have had the opportunity to be a part of a Father / Daughter dance but they are pretty typical. You get inside the auditorium, the gym, or wherever you go, you stand in line to get the picture and when that’s over the girls just run wild. They find their friends and run together for most of the night. They dance, laugh, and scream. As a dad you might have conversations with some of your buddies and then finally the D.J. plays a slow song. You NEVER want to miss that moment to dance with your daughter when the D.J. plays that first slow song.
I look through a crowd of at least 200 girls and I find my little girl! As we dance to the song, I notice something. She has grown a little since last year. In fact she has grown so much more since the first dance 5 years ago. My little girl is growing up. There will only be 3 more dances like this at this school and then she moves on to High School and the college and probably gets married one day. Someone once told me “the days are long but the years are short.” How true that statement is! I look at her and whisper to her, “One of these years we will be dancing to a song like this at your wedding.” My little girl responds, “I’m never getting married and I am never leaving home!”
I think about all those wonderful years we have had together and all of those good years to come. I think about her belly laughs along the years, the times we didn’t agree on things and the times I would get that little special hug out of nowhere and how good that felt. Yes, my little girl is growing up right before my eyes!
It’s a special time each year. A time I cherish. Our girls are growing up and time does not stop. One day my little girl will leave home. One day she probably will get married and start her own family. The Father / Daughter Dance holds a special place in my heart and I am privileged to have the opportunity for one night a year to experience that moment.
Thank you Amanda! Daddy loves you!