Melancholy moments

Forgive the alliterative title; I couldn’t resist. I promise it’s appropriate.

Less than 48 hours from now, Daughter Two will be ensconced in her dorm room, already developing a history with her roommate, already shifting her cultural center of mass from our home to her college. She has worked her last shift at the shoe store, hugged her friends, packing is well along (or so she says). We’ve taken our last pre-college paddle and eaten the kayakberry  pies that resulted from the last picking expedition with Pat and Patty.

We’re thrilled for her and vicariously through her and can’t wait to see her in her new normal when we go for Parents’ Orientation next week. But of course, by then the Rubicon will have been crossed. We’ll be on the outside looking in. We’ll love what we see but still, a spectator is not a participant.

Still, I can’t wait to see her off. Is that irony or paradox – I’m never sure?

Advice to parents whose kids are NOT leaving this month for college: All those things that you want to do again before your child ceases to be a child – do them now.