Letting Go | This Is Us
Beth: Mama, what’s wrong with me? When Tess first came out I was totally fine and now, now I think I’m having trouble letting go.
Carol: What are you letting go of?
Beth: She’s my first-born daughter. I had all these dreams about what it was going to be like when she got older, you know, like, she’d talk to be about the boys she liked or I’d help her get ready for dates. One day I would watch her walk down the aisle towards a man every bit as good as her father. I thought I let all that go but….
Carol: It’s more than letting go. You have to adjust. It’s part of being a mother. This is the part where you let go of what you thought would be and adjust to what is. When you left dance, I thought that you would go into academics, like. me. I thought you would choose to stay in D.C. and be close, always. See, that was my picture of your life.
But the real picture? The woman you’ve actually become? The things you actually want? They’re just as beautiful.
It took me some time to see that. Too much time if you ask me. So I hope that you will adjust quicker, Bethany. Time is so precious. You blink and your daughter’s grown, and you’re holed up in her house, trying to make up for 20 years of not adjusting.
