1 Day

1 Day 

The drive down was non eventful—which was good. There was a point where you fell asleep, which is what you always do on long car rides, and I almost lost it, wondering if it was the last time I would ever see you do that again. Luckily, I pulled myself together. Your sibling was playing Taylor Swift and I wasn’t paying too much attention and then “Never Grow Up” came on, and I was like: not today, Satan! Another crisis averted. 

As we entered the town where your school is, your roommates, who had done the pre-orientation program called. They invited you to swing by the room to check it out. When we arrived, we realized that pictures lie and the room was much smaller than we thought. In order to fit everyone, one of the roommates basically had her bed up against the closet, rendering the closet unusable. The three of you had to negotiate how to set up the room so that everyone could have some space. There were a few touchy moments where everyone was trying to advocate for themselves while still trying to be fair to one another. It was interesting to see the dynamics at play and at one-point things were not progressing and I couldn’t help myself, I had to step in. Once that happened, things progressed, but your roommates both were comfortable admitting that the start of things had been stressful and it was hard to adjust to a new life without your family always there. Even though I too am sad and adjusting, this moment wasn’t about me, and I was able to put all my focus on the kids. I hugged them and told them as a representative of all the parents, we are so proud of them. I said that this is a hard time because we all love you so much, but none of us would be here if we didn’t think it was a great opportunity and that they would be well cared for. Once we left the dorm, I replayed my words and thought about how true they are. 

At dinner we went around the table talking about the day’s events and I said that even though it was a bit stressful meeting the roommates and immediately having to negotiate a potential conflict, I found that my anxiety about tomorrow had come way down. A lot of my thinking about what would happen when you went to college was about you getting there and magically becoming 100% independent and no longer needing me. Seeing everyone be vulnerable helped me to trust that the things I know about you, and about kids are still true; every kid needs to know that they have someone in their corner. And no matter if that corner is in the same house, or town, or state, I am always here.