50 State Quarters

I have just acquired the last of the 50 state quarters to complete my family’s collection. I’ve been asking around for it for the last several weeks. In fact I even looked up when it was released into circulation. It’s a milestone — a bittersweet end to a decade that passed much more quickly than I could have ever imagined.

Around the time that the quarter collection began, my daughter, 7 years old at the time, lost her first tooth. I remember so clearly being taken aback by the event, as if I had blinked and she moved from being a baby to a little girl. At the time a good friend sent me an email chronicling all the events that I had to look forward to: her first period, her first boyfriend, going off to college and perhaps getting married and having children (and hopefully in that order she joked). Now in the beginning stages of looking into colleges, my daughter has passed the mid point of that list.

For a long time my daughter and her brother, 16 months her junior, eagerly checked change to be the first to find the next coin. But as they aged, this activity was replaced with going out with friends, acting in plays, participating in what seemed like hundreds of sporting events. When their interest waned, I keep the collection going, thinking that some day they would appreciate the finished product.

As for myself, I went through my own evolution in that decade. I turned in my business suits and working outside the home for money for two more children and loads of volunteer work. They call thatstaying at home though I challenge that assertion.

When my husband emailed me this morning to tell me that he had two Hawaii quarters, I got teary eyed. Silly, perhaps. My two little boys have taken an interest in completing the set and are anxious to be the first in their class to bring it toshow and tell. Perhaps something new will come along to mark the time for them as these quarters did for the older two.