Goodbye Freshman

Well quite a marker is coming up very soon. Yes, my kid will have completed her inaugural year away from home at college. Although it is a contradiction, it feels like it has been such a long COSTLY year, while at the same time, I cannot believe how fast it has all passed. I guess that is why college is not only an adventure for the students but for the parents as well?

Like any new experience, all of us were hyper-curious about every feeling, nuance, and impression during the first days of college. None of us knew what to expect though at 1000 miles away, one thing was for sure - there was no instantaneous lifeline. My wife and I had waited nearly a decade to have but one child so we were pretty sure we could handle the empty nest thing. As for the kid, she has grown up amazingly responsible and independently capable despite her youth.

Eight months later, we are all a little ‘less curious’ about what each day and the day after that will feel like and shape up to be. It is not that we don’t care, but in reality it becomes the act of simply ‘living life’. As we reach adulthood, it is that tempering of feeling which makes business and society predictable and tolerable. If the impetuousness and volatile spiking of hot and cold emotion and energy were to continue beyond the teen years for us all, then the world would be a very different place.

So soon in our family, we will be saying 'goodbye' to a Freshman and in a very real sense, hello to a freshly minted adult. There is still much to learn and as parents we (of course) will STILL have lots to say since we are still covering the bills. But I am very curious to observe and report on this strange metamorphosis, especially with this ‘new person’ living in my house for a couple of months. I guess I had better get ready for yet ANOTHER adventure huh? Of this I’m sure, the good times will continue to pass at break-neck speed, and the mundane will simply STOP the passage of time. See I can be taught – maybe I should head back to college?