The Year of Lasts: Fun Midlife Sh*t Quickie Minisode

Sarah Milken (00:00:01) - Hi peeps. Welcome back to the Flexible Neurotic Podcast. I'm Dr. Sarah Milken, the flexible neurotic. I'm calling this week's fun midlife shit. Quickie mini. So my year of lasts last L A S T S. You might ask, what is that? I use my golden shit shovel to dig deep into my teenage son who I usually call teen son. His name is Jake, his last year of high school. My year of quote lasts with him empty nest and what the fuck is next for me and for all of us. We don't have to have all or any of the answers for what is next for us in midlife after empty nest. We just have to know what's coming. Or maybe it's already come for you. For me, I'm gonna be half empty nest in late August and then I will still have a daughter home who will be entering 11th grade.

Sarah Milken (00:00:57) - Good luck to me. You don't even have to have kids to have these feelings, but you're just ready for your next thing. In midlife, you have the horrible case of the midlife. Its for the personal rebrand. Like you just want something new, your board is fuck. And we can take the horrible its and turn it into fabulous moisture. My kids hate the word moist, but like in midlife moisture is like dream unless it's like sweat moisture. We want vagina moisture and facial moisture. But anything else? No thank you. Okay, l o l. What are you willing to put your work into? Is it a business? Is it a hobby? Is it fucking mak pickleball? I'm so terrible at both of those things, but I have a lot of friends who are getting really good at it, so I better start cooking on that. Okay, is it a fitness routine?

Sarah Milken (00:01:49) - Is it a fucking facelift? Is it a combination of all of it? I mean, who knows? Some of us will have a really clear idea from the get-go that they just wanna do this or they just wanna do that and others of us will be like in the fucking swirl of, I don't know, I'm not sure this is uncomfortable. But guess what guys? The uncomfortable can be exciting too. And the uncomfortable energy of not knowing what's next can kind of feel exhilarating. You know, kind of like when you were sneaking out of your house when you were a teenager, the excitement of getting off the hamster wheel of sameness, not knowing what's on the other side. As I always say, it's all about finding what works for each of us. Midlife women and not judging others. Cuz you know guys, high school's over like we already did that girl drama and if you have a daughter you're reliving it.

Sarah Milken (00:02:44) - But like midlife women, come on guys, like let's just let everyone live in their own lanes. Okay, so high school's over, we're staying in our own lanes, we already did all that crap, blah blah blah blah blah. I'm gonna hang in there for two more years with teen daughter and the teenage drama. Okay? There comes a time in midlife when those of us who are quote moms feel like, oh my God, what's next for me? We're bombarded with inner feelings like empty nest. Who will I be without my kids? Will I even be relevant anymore? Am I becoming invisible? We already have that like hormonal hell going on and those like gross feelings of like frumpy and lumpy on some days where you have just no mojo at all. Sometimes you just don't even wanna get outta bed, you just wanna stay under the covers.

Sarah Milken (00:03:40) - And believe me, I've at least one or two of those a week where I'm like, I can't believe my day just started at like one or two o'clock and I'm still in pajamas. Like what the fuck? Yes. And there are many days where I'm feeling irrelevant uninspired and fucking invisible. I know it seems like, oh she started a podcast and her Instagram and like blah blah blah. Yes, all of that is true, but I still have really clunky fucked up yucky days where I'm like, nothing feels like it's working. This all feels really hard. Does anyone see me? Where is everyone? Do my kids see me? Does my husband see me? And he started wondering like, how is empty nest going to actually impact you? Like am I gonna turn into like a mental case? And if you've seen me on on Instagram, like I'm already halfway there, I never thought I'd be like the crier on Instagram, but the only reason that I'm allowing it to happen is because I want other women to know that they're not alone.

Sarah Milken (00:04:38) - And I think I accomplished that because I had so many women message me and leave comments like, oh my god, me too, thank God, thank God other people are crazy just like me. Because you start feeling fucking crazy because you're so hormonal and you never know when the emotions are gonna hit you. I've had two TikTok sent to me that have made me cry hysterically that aren't even about my kids. It just somehow reminded me of teens son. And then I'm there having a mental mental breakdown. Okay, so how's this kid going to college? How did all these 18 years pass? I'm here to make us think and feel all the feels of the year of what I'm calling the year of last. Like I'm really trying to like jump in and savor the feels, you know, as my high school senior gears up for his last few days of high school.

Sarah Milken (00:05:33) - Or let me rephrase that as I gear up for his last few days because he's like fucking done. He's like o u t. Did I even spell that right? Yeah. Okay. So empty nest syndrome, such a weird term on so many levels, but let's forget the semantics and just talk about what the feelings even are. And let me tell you, it's a real fucking thing. So if you're thinking like, oh I'm gonna be fine, I mean maybe you will be, but let me just tell you 18 years of emotion, just build up and you're like what the fuck is happening now one day your home is bustling with chaos of toddlers and then they're teenagers and then it's eerily quiet. I mean I had a little bit of a taste of it when my kids used to go to sleepaway camp for seven weeks. My husband and I would be like, is this for real?

Sarah Milken (00:06:22) - What's happening here? And you know what? My firstborn goes off to college in August. We're dropping him off in the late August. So you'll get to see all the Instagram content there. I'm sure he's really gonna love that. Especially cuz we're gonna be sweating our asses off on the east coast with a hundred percent humidity. I'm gonna have the worst hair. I mean it's all about me, isn't it? And of course I'll be left with teen daughter in my home to supervise my life. Tell me what to wear, what not to wear, how to breathe the proper decibels of chewing. Did you know that chewing should be silent? Okay, let's back up a bit. This has been the college process year, college on steroids. If you've been through it, you fucking know take the a c t or don't take the s a t or don't take these classes or don't do these 700 activities, submit applications, get deferred, get rejected, put yourself in the admissions pool.

Sarah Milken (00:07:20) - It's crazy as fuck. It's true, it's real. I did it. Kids are not getting into schools that they thought they were for sure. Getting into kids are feeling like there are no clear requirements for what's good enough and what's not. And honestly this whole process is sort of like disheartening. It's like is it an evaluation of your kid? Is it an evaluation of like all the things that like maybe the his or her parents made her do. Did the kid really wanna do those things? Who knows? Okay, it doesn't even matter. That could be nine fucking episodes. I'm gonna say I'm very grateful that Jake kind of, I don't wanna say like he got deferred in December. Of course he was super bummed and then he ended up getting in thankfully in the spring. But he definitely had his share of like, oh my gods, oh my gods.

Sarah Milken (00:08:13) - And as the process closed up, you know, we were like Okay, so now this is settling in and now I'm gonna start having mental breakdowns about him leaving like, oh, okay, so I wanna get to the crux of this mini. So this past week I have experienced a whirlwind of emotions as my teen son. Jake had his last baseball game, his last prom the last day of high school I've been referring to this year as the year of last. And boy did it live up to its name every moment felt bittersweet. But I've really been making a conscious effort to savor and enjoy all of this time with obviously some really ugly yet cathartic tears on

Sarah Milken (00:08:54) - The side. The funniest thing is I spoke on Instagram about how I'm gonna miss the mess trail. I'm gonna miss the cereal trail through the kitchen, down the stairs, the whole thing, all the hoodies, the baseball shit all over the floor in the kitchen counter. I mean like his backpack must have 80,000 different kinds of germs on it and he just throws it on the kitchen counter and I'm like, what the fuck? So the funniest thing happened tonight. He had some friends over and a package came and it was a new hoodie, uh, I don't know, like you need 700 hoodies, whatever. So he changed out of the hoodie he was wearing and put the old one on the counter. And I was like, what the fuck? Now we have to have a hoodie on the kitchen counter. He goes, oh I thought you were gonna miss my messes.

Sarah Milken (00:09:40) - And there you go, touche with that one. So of course I just let the hoodies sit there. Um, he was so right. But yes, I will miss the hoodies and all the shit and all the cereal trails, but as Jake's mom and I'll speak for Instagram husband too and if you're new here, Instagram husband is just a friendly term for my husband Jeremy who hates Instagram but kind of puts up with it because he knows it's like part of the whole platform. He's actually become a lot better about it I guess. Like when you live with me you gotta get fucking used to it. I don't even know what to say. But anyway, in terms of Jake, we're so proud of the young man. He's become, he's a team captain, a leader, a mentor, a friend and we know he's gonna continue to do really cool things, meaningful things and enjoy life with his sort of can-do mindset.

Sarah Milken (00:10:33) - Um, but as I watched him walk across the grass at his senior baseball ceremony, I couldn't help but feel that like pang of sadness that like really heavy heart where it just feels like it's fluttering out of your chest. That little tear dripped down my face and I thought, oh my god, if I fucking cry in front of the whole baseball team, he's gonna cringe and I'm gonna die here. Um, thankfully no one saw. Um, and I just kept repeating random things in my head like, Sarah, you're okay Sarah, you're okay Sarah, shut the fuck up. And all these thoughts ran through my mind. I'm like how did my blue-eyed smart and kind as fuck pain in the ass amazing kid grow into this man? And the notion that parenting, like the parenting altogether, the days are so long it's like fucking groundhog day and the years are so short that is so fucking for real.

Sarah Milken (00:11:27) - I keep turning these indicators on off and they keep going back on and I keep yelling at Instagram husband that they keep going on and he's telling me that they're not okay whatever. So we're just gonna ignore that shit for now. Okay, let's talk about the things we do to make ourselves feel better about empty nest feelings. Let's disregard the brownie I had yesterday, the two spring sweaters and six lip glosses I ordered from Instagram to fill the building an anxious void. Like what kind of dopamine hit could I have right now that would make me less anxious about my son leaving for college because it's kind of weird. You're like okay, he's leaving for college. Which it means he's sort of probably like leaving forever in like the normal sense of like he's probably never gonna wanna live with me again. Um, which is definitely strange but I know very healthy.

Sarah Milken (00:12:19) - Okay, let's talk about rituals and traditions that we create to forge meaning and predictable ceremony in our lives. Okay, so for me the cringe factor family ritual has always been the first and last days of school I would make this, I would take paper out of the printer, it wasn't fancy and a black sharpie pen and I, I would make each kid hold a sign that was like March 23rd. No I would be September, like September 9th, first day of kindergarten, you know, June 5th last day of 10th grade. And my kids would groan and moan and they would hate the photos and at the time I didn't even have Instagram so they weren't like, oh please don't fucking post that because I didn't even have Instagram until two and a half years ago until I started this podcast. Um, and then of course they would call it the text blast where I would text the photos to like every single one of my friends and members of my family.

Sarah Milken (00:13:14) - And then of course when my podcast started I was like, guess what guys? These are going on Instagram and I don't even know what to say about that. I've barely survived those days of them monitoring my Instagram but they seem to be getting cooler about it. Well teen's son actually just fucking mutes me cuz he is like, mom, I just can't take it, I can't watch it. And then all my friend, he said, all his friends follow me and then he gets like screenshots of everything I've said or done like oh my god, whatever. But anyway, so they've ruled their eyes for years and years. But the beautiful part is I have all of these signs from the first and last day of every single grade they've had. Like don't get me wrong, I'm not a Pinterest mom, I'm the worst like photo collector the whole thing.

Sarah Milken (00:13:57) - I have photos of my kids in photo albums until age two and then everything else like lives in a cloud somewhere. So don't be impressed by it. It's literally white paper signs with Sharpie and then there's no record of it. Like you would have to go scrolling through 750,000 photos to even find them, okay? But the photos from those days speak volumes and they're just like capturing the heavy and flying heart that comes with watching your kid grow up. And what was so amazing is I posted on Instagram this picture of Jake holding a sign on the first day of kindergarten and then on the last day of high school thinking to myself like how is that even fucking possible? This kid is going off to college 3000 miles away. Like he doesn't even return my calls or texts here. Like what's it gonna be like when he's 3000 miles away?

Sarah Milken (00:14:50) - Like he's going to care about responding to me. I don't know, I'm gonna have to set up some kind of like bribery situation. I don't know, it's so stressful. And he's always like, you have life 360 And I'm like yeah but it's like disconnected half the time. And me looking at a map is like what does that even mean? My kids think that life 360 solves all problems. It's complete and utter bullshit. But anyway, the cutest part about the whole science situation is, so the last day of school was a few days ago and I came downstairs and I wasn't in my ugly nasty pajamas with dog hair all over them with my hair everywhere and just a disaster. I like had a workout outfit on and some makeup and my Instagram husband was like, why the fuck are you dressed? And I hadn't even said a word.

Sarah Milken (00:15:34) - And teen son goes, dad, she's obviously dressed with makeup on cuz she wants to take a picture with me. It's the last day of school. And Jeremy Instagram husband was like, oh. And for a split second because I was so overwhelmed by the fact that it was his actual last day of high school for the rest of his fucking life, I forgot about the sign and I just stood there staring at him and he goes, where's the fucking sign? And I'm like, oh my god. Oh my god. So I ran to the printer, got the paper, wrote the sign, and then I posted the photo and I got so many messages from you guys cuz I know what it feels like I'm in it, I'm in the thick of it. And so many of you guys were like, oh my god, I'm on kid number three or kid number four just left the house.

Sarah Milken (00:16:16) - And it's, everyone has their own story. Everyone has their own way of handling it, but just knowing that there's other people like in the same boat just makes you feel less crazy. Like you're already a hormonal fucking lunatic in midlife. So like knowing that like other people are just as crazy just takes a little bit of the pressure off. Okay, so we did the sign thing, then we moved into prom, the suit, the friends, the palm, the circumstance, this was his second prom. First prom was last year, junior prom, this was his final prom. The girls were all gorgeous in their long dresses looking stunning and like they're age 24, the boys in suits, of course Jake no tie, groovy casual in his suit with his rad printed socks on brand for Jake. Always his edgy way. Of course the next morning the suit jacket is crumpled on the kitchen counter in a ball, the pants are on the sofa clearly he came home, got comfortable and ate various things as I could see them like in like a discovery path through the kitchen, things hanging out of the refrigerator.

Sarah Milken (00:17:24) - There was like a pasta splatter on the counter. And I'm like, what did this kid do? But if you know teen's son, it's on brand for him. Like why not leave a mess when you can? Okay, I am gonna miss their dirty baseball clothes on the kitchen counter. I can't even believe that I'm saying that the dirty school backpack on the kitchen counter, all of it. Like I said, think of all those, those places that that backpack has been. Oh my god. And then the baseball bag in my line of walking, I've almost broken my hip six times. Wait, don't trip on the baseball bag. The three hoodies dumped on the floor from the trunk of his car. And then I don't know if you guys saw that on my Instagram, his eighth grade dean emailed me literally like two months ago and was like, Sarah, I have Jake's sweatshirt, his hoodie in my office from eighth grade.

Sarah Milken (00:18:11) - My son's a senior. I'm like, what the fuck? Okay, it doesn't seem possible that in late August I'm not gonna hear music blasting from his room and that room is gonna be empty like just with like furniture. And I had so many of you guys message me like I can't even handle walking past my kid's empty room. And I'm thinking, oh my god, that's gonna be me. Anyway. So he always eats breakfast in a whole mess. He's like heating up like weird chicken from the night before. I'm like, how the fuck are you eating hot chicken in the microwave for breakfast? Then he takes three bites from the ice cream container before he walks out the door, I yell, drive safely. He says, love you. My heart melts and I move on with my day to find more reminders of the year of less. And they go on and on and on.

Sarah Milken (00:19:02) - I walk into the kids hangout area in my house. I find the remnants from the night before Jake and his crew of besties have left water bottles, all sorts of shit crumpled papers. It's like, do you guys, have you ever heard of a fucking trashcan? And I even bought a special trash can with trash bags that like tie around the thing, whatever, it didn't even matter. But I am really grateful he did have a unicorn high school experience of creating this group of boys that are like family. And let me tell you, that was all that was important to me was Jake and my daughter's like mental health. It's like living in LA living as a teenager in this world right now. There's so much going on. And Jake's elementary school experience was pretty fierce. It was a little every man for himself, not kind, not the energy that Jake really wanted.

Sarah Milken (00:20:01) - Um, I'm not saying every kid had that experience, but many did. Thankfully he convinced me that being in a school for 12 years was not normal for him and he needed to find a new space. Boy was he right? Uh, the kid knows who he is and what he wants from like he's known what he's wanted from like the time he was a toddler. I'll save memory lane of his childhood and my experience of him as like as his mom for another episode cuz I just, I could go down like for a hundred more years. But one funny story I do wanna tell you, and I'm sure all of you guys have these amazing stories from preschool and elementary school, but like a little bit about like how Jake works. And the only reason I'm telling you this cuz this is part of my like healing and grieving process is like memory lane.

Sarah Milken (00:20:49) - Um, I'll just say that when he went to preschool, he came home and he said, we'll just call her Sally, Sally who will remain anonymous, doesn't wear a diaper anymore. I'm not gonna wear a diaper anymore. He said that was it. He never wore a diaper again at age two and a half and on no accidents, no body training. I was like, what the fuck? That was the easiest thing I've ever done. Okay, fast forward two years in preschool he had to do like the extra year of preschool because he was like that late aug late um, summer birthday. So he was like a hundred when he was in preschool. Anyway, so like two years later he came home and he said the same girl Sally knows how to tie her shoes. Guess who learned how to tie his shoes that fucking night. Although I'm experiencing this year of last while he's living at home, the next four years for him will be like living all of his first like the first college dorm room that's not part of a summer program and he's not coming home in three weeks.

Sarah Milken (00:21:50) - A first real roommate that's not part of a summer program and so much more. And if you watch any of my Instagram over the summer and you saw Jake in like the summer school dorm, um, Jake didn't think you needed to wash your sheets because he is like, I shower twice a day so I don't see why sheet changing is necessary. And the sheets kept moving on the mattress. So he like took these um, you know, like those ties and he got the, he like permanently stapled the sheets to the bed until he left hopefully like as a freshman in college. And he is a very clean kid. He figures out like how to get the sheets off and put them in the washing machine because I think a year of not changing the sheets could kind of get brutal even if you shower twice a day.

Sarah Milken (00:22:42) - Okay? So if you guys have had like a kid leave the nest or you're in and now or it's coming for you in the near future, I hear you, I feel you. That heart is fluttery, that heart feels like really heavy and I'm like, oh my god. And I'm trying to see the beauty and the adventure in it for this kid. I'm like basically exploding out of my heart and my mind. Instagram husband is fucking ignoring me. I mean he's just like, Sarah, it's in August. And I'm like, I know, but I'm feeling this now. We still have graduation ahead of us and all of those culmination activities. Can you imagine me walking in a literal and metaphorical puddle of tears at my feet? This idea of the year of last empty nest and our feelings of like irrelevance and questioning ourselves and our roles is this keeps popping up for me in my life, my Instagram, my podcast because it's this idea of going from like supervisor fucking helicopter mom to basically like consultant mom, like consultant on the side.

Sarah Milken (00:23:43) - Like I work for McKenzie or something. Like I'm not his main information relationship source anymore. I'm literally turning into consultant mode. And for many of us moms, like a lot of our relevance has come from our children. I mean I am the PhD girl who decided to stay at home and not have her career outside of the house and the family, even though I grew up in a house where that's what happened. Both my parents were full-time career people, but then after I had my first kid, I was like, wait a second, I'm not leaving. And then I kept saying, I'm gonna go back to school. I'm gonna, I'm gonna go back to work in five years. Five years. And then five years turned into a thousand years and then I was 45 and I was like, okay, I've got a serious case of the midlife fucking itches.

Sarah Milken (00:24:30) - My kids are gonna move out of my house and this is my opportunity for reinvention because Instagram husband is not gonna fucking entertain me. I'm not good at pickleball, I'm not good at tennis, I'm not good at maja. And like what am I gonna do with all of my time? Like I have to find something. And that's where this kind of midlife remix strategy came. I tried not to see it as like a midlife crisis. Like I did not buy a sports car. I know like some men buy sports cars, which my husband did. Um, people have affairs people, you know, all that stuff. So I thought, okay, what's my midlife remix gonna be? Okay, so now back to PhD mom who always thought I would be having um, like a job outside of the house. Which leads me to this idea of living your life in seasons.

Sarah Milken (00:25:26) - I know I've talked about this before, but you know, everyone says it's impossible to have it all. And I kind of agree, I think you can have it all. And like many of my podcast guests have said, my experts is yes it's possible, but usually not all at the same time because it's very hard to be like full-blown career mom, full-blown PTA mom. Like you're just trying to find the balance of it all. And there are women who do it. I mean my mom was a full-time career woman, um, and she was an amazing parent and she was home every night by five 30 for dinner and she wasn't that mom like who drove to carpool or did the PTA thing. Like literally I think my mom took us to school on the first day of school and my brother and I look forward to it so much because she would actually take us to seven 11 so we could buy whatever we wanted for the day and then she would drive us to school.

Sarah Milken (00:26:21) - And this was like before all the computer stuff and there would be like a huge bulletin board on wheels on Montana Avenue at Franklin Elementary School and it would tell you what teacher you had and like those moments I remember so well because like I said, my mom was a working mom. So when she did get to do those things, I actually really remembered them and they had a huge impact on me. Okay? So as you guys know, two and a half years ago, I started this podcast as part of my midlife free mix, like I said. And I just felt like I would, the silence of my kitchen was going to come for me. And like I thought like should I have another kid? No, I can't have another kid. That's cuz all that's gonna happen for me in that situation is I'm just gonna prolong the inevitable, inevitable of like thinking about what I need, need to do next with myself.

Sarah Milken (00:27:16) - Like something outside of my husband and my kids. And like I've said a million times, I'm not a hobbyist, my husband's a fucking hobbyist. It's like he plays piano and golf and tennis and like all that stuff and it comes so easily for him and me. I'm like, oh my God. But for me, and the reason I'm telling you this is my podcast for me, like I wanna get up in the morning and fucking do it. And it's not because I make money from it or because people like know who I am or like any of those things. It's because I fucking love it. I get so much meaning out of it. There's so much connection with the women. I get to hit my creative side. I get to hit my nerdy fucking side, my PhD side where I'm like spending a thousand hours, you know, collecting all this information and curating it and putting all my questions together for podcasts.

Sarah Milken (00:28:08) - So my fellow midlife remixers, we're gonna mine the golden nuggets as I call them in every single episode. And we're gonna figure out how to make midlife sexy again, not the sexy of lingerie, although my husband and children both to all told me that my pajamas were nasty and that I needed to get a new, a new sort of whole pajama thing. But I was like, but these are comfortable and they don't write up my butt and all the things and all the stretched out underwear. I have this new rule now where I don't just take the underwear from the top of the pile, I kind of go through them and then if they're stretched out in weird, I actually throw them away. So I'm down to like a very bare minimum of underwear and I need to do like a full replacement. Okay? The midlife sexy that I'm talking about, like I said, is not the lingerie.

Sarah Milken (00:28:59) - It's what makes us interesting and interested. And my podcast guest Eve Rodsky talked about that. I feel like that was like episode five and guess what you guys, I've recorded her again and that's coming up soon. Um, and it's becoming interested and interesting in this midlife second half runway. You guys, the runway is long. We still like, I'm gonna be 50 when I'm a full blown empty nester. Like think about how much time that is with my husband. Like if I didn't have this whole side project going on, I don't know, he would probably be running for the hills and be like, God, this bitch is back. You know, like he was so excited cuz tonight I was like, oh, I'm recording. He's like, oh my god, I can walk the dog and I'm gonna play the piano. And he like has this whole sense of freedom and I've sort of appreciate it because I feel like there was a time where I was like very codependent and I felt like, what is he gonna do for me?

Sarah Milken (00:29:55) - Like, how is he gonna entertain me? And I realized, like I've said a million times, that midlife self reinvention is a personal responsibility. It's self-agency. Like I secretly waited for him to like come up with this like brilliant idea for me. Like he has his own life and his own business. He's not like thinking about what I could be doing with myself. It was on me to do it and it's uncomfortable and it's really fucking hard and it still feels really hard because as my podcast grows and things change and I grow and I'm tired and I feel gross and all the hormone stuff, it's like there's always another thing. Always, always, always. And my point in telling you all of this is that all of this, like my son leaving for college, me starting a podcast, all these things, they're so scary and uncertain because it's like that's stepping off the hamster wheel, but it's also like weirdly exciting and p full of potential fabulosity.

Sarah Milken (00:30:54) - And if you need a little inspiration along the way, you can go back and binge my whole podcast library. So many women are saying that they're re-listening because they're so bummed that they're caught up. I mean, how cute is that? I have like the best listeners in the world and to those of you who are new, thank you to those who have messaged me to tell me that they relate and enjoy the podcast. Thank you to the women who take that extra second to like a post and comment. I know it's fucking annoying and I know it's like childish, but guess what? Like, that's how the Instagram account grows. That's how your account gets seen by more people. It's annoying, but it's true. And we know that Instagram is really hard to grow on, so it like thrives on engagement. So if you're on my Instagram and you're checking out my stories, check out my post, throw in a like, throw in a comment and also feels good when you're part of the conversation.

Sarah Milken (00:31:46) - Um, take that extra step. It means a world to me. It helps it grow. If you're one of the fabulous 280 some odd people who have written an Apple Podcast, review your fucking honors level. Thank you. I know, I know, I know, I know how annoying technology is, especially for midlife brains. It's so helpful for the growth of this podcast. And if you're a subscriber to the podcast, you're double honors. And I think most podcast listeners don't even know that subscription numbers are the gold standard metric of how you're doing. It's not anything extra. You just hit subscribe rather than just listening by episode, by episode with act without actually subscribing. Um, and you know how responsive I am. DM me, tell me what you're thinking. Tell me you subscribed, blah, blah, blah. All of the things. It's only me and my Instagram. And you know, I love my midlife peeps.

Sarah Milken (00:32:44) - I hope you have enjoyed my verbal diarrhea's stream of consciousness. Year of last, I can't believe I did not have a mental breakdown. I have been putting off this episode recording this for two weeks now, and I think it's because the resistance was actually acknowledging and recording in history my personal journey that the high school journey for my son is over and I'm about to cry, but I'm not gonna cry. And that he's off onto his new adventure next year and how excited I am for him. And I am really trying to reframe this as a new beginning and we're getting new roles. He is going to be college student and I am gonna be consultant mom rather than supervisor. Mom and I can continue to supervise teen daughter or let me rephrase that, have her supervise me. I love you guys. If you're empty nesting already or if you're coming upon empty nesting or you already have, or you're going to, or all of the things, know that I love you. I feel you, I relate to you. I know how fucking hard it is. Until next time, keep remixing and reinventing.