Off to College!

I used to laugh at my elders, not really believing them when they used to say that time flies. While they watched us grow and marveled at the quickness of it all, time seemed to plod on for us young ones. Then something happens. We grow up, get jobs, get married, have kids, and suddenly, time concepts change. And then we discover that Grandma was right: Time flies. I have entered that phase of life too. For it seems like just a few years ago that we were standing in front of our house with a newborn baby, and now suddenly, that newborn is 18 years old, and about to begin student life at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.




I remember this day like it was yesterday. Carl's first day of Kindergarten. I made a tradition of taking his photograph on the first day of school each year in the same spot: On the walkway in front of our house. Back in 1996, there was a fence. On this day, Carl was a little nervous. I was too. After all, I was sending my almost 5 year old boy to a magnet school on the other side of town. I wasn't familiar with the neighborhood or the teachers, and the only thing that made both of us feel better was that his best friend from preschool was also going to be attending the school. Watching that little boy head off towards his classroom was gut wrenching. But, I didn't let him know how I felt. I just watched him go.



Fast forward to September 2009. Here is Carl, now 18 years old, heading off to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Still wearing shorts and polo shirts, and still carrying the shoulder bag, only now it holds a laptop instead of a notebook, pencils, and crayons. The fence is gone, the houses across the street have new people and new paint jobs. As I took this photo, I thought back to that first day of school, and that stomach ache I had as I forced myself to let him go. Now, as I looked at my grown son getting ready to leave his hometown for college life, I had more than just a stomach ache. My heart was actually hurting. But I couldn't let him know how I really felt, so I just kind of joked about it. And I snapped the photo.



There is always lots of stuff to pack for your college-bound kid. Luckily, it all fit in the car. Even George, the T-Rex, given to him from his girlfriend as a birthday gift the day before.



We got up at 5:00 AM Sunday to start packing the car. We wanted to get an early start on our long drive. Craig got up before dawn and came over to see us off. And our next door neighbor came out in her jammies and slippers to take this shot of all of us just before we hit the road.

We arrived after the mad rush of new students, most of whom moved in the day before. That made it really easy to park, unload, and locate Carl's dorm building. We had visited the school over the summer and stayed one night in one of the dorms. Carl was not thrilled with the idea of living in one of those buildings. It was quite a surprise for all of us to discover where he would be living for the next year.



The view from Carl's front door. Could it get any better than this?



The building is like a motel, sort of. Carl's room is on the ground floor, corner unit. He has one roommate. There is a bathroom that they will share with 6 other students. That is much better than the building we tried out last August, where an entire floor of students had to wander around in the halls or stairwells to get to their showers. Carl lucked out. And his roommate seems to be a great guy, too.



So, we brought all his things in, dropped them off, snapped a photo of Carl in his new digs, and then, with my stomach churning and heart aching, we hugged him goodbye and headed back home. Its hard to let go. Because I really thought I would have just a little more time to get used to all this. I can't believe how fast time really does fly.