Today we are talking about one of the biggest parenting milestones. Dropping your kid off at college. It was yesterday you were doing a U turn going 60 in a 35 to get a forgotten sports bag and get your child to practice on time, sitting in the never ending carpool line where there is always the one parent not moving up and causing a complete jam, running up a forgotten water bottle, loading up 10 kids in a 8 seat car to go to a game, laughing at the conversations, then they start driving and these conversations are missed but they still walk in the house every night knowing they are in the basement or creeping around the house after midnight hearing popcorn pop and the fridge raided.
Now we are packing giant blue bags with the XL sheets, comforters, desk lamp, fan, shower caddy, hygiene products, snacks, mini fridges, microwaves, hoodies, clothes for all types of weather, plastic bins, etc.
All for the preparation of dropping your child off to a foreign land where they will need to figure out how to live in a very small space with another person, eat food made in mass quantities, have free will and decide go to class not go to class, wake up not wake up, drink not drink have the time of their life while you adjust to the silence and not knowing what they are doing. They have walked out of your house for the last time with this being their only home. A lot of my college kids like to come home but struggle with transitioning back to home and want to return to their independent college lifestyle. This is exactly what should be happening but can be tough on a parent. You have done your job and they will soar or sink. No matter what happens it will all work out.
In the next couple of weeks we will be dropping off our kids at college feeling proud, sad, worried, excited. Some may feel happy due to their kid soiling the nest prior to drop off and whatever you are feeling is okay. I thought I would be a sobbing mess and I feel ready to drop off and let him soar. TBD if I fall apart at drop off.
