John Off To College

It all started with a seemingly straight forward objective - go to the college fair, pick out some colleges to visit and then pick the school to attend. Simple - right? You would think, but not in this case. We went to the college fair at the Nassau Coliseum and I sent my son and his friend Jared into where the college representatives where and I went to do the seminars on college aid, NCAA rules, etc. - everything a parent wanted to know about college and was afraid to ask. We agreed that we would meet back in the main hallway when we where done. The timing was perfect -as I came out of the last seminar, John and Jared came out of the college fair hall. John immediately said I know where I am going to school - Bond University in Australia! Out of over 300 hundred schools from the U.S. he finds the only one from Australia. After doing our duel diligence and discussing it at length, John decided that he wanted to go to a place he had never been and did not know anyone.He was very excited and stayed that way up until the actual time came to go through security at the airport. I kept asking myself if this was the right decision - but after all, isn’t our job to help our kids build the solid foundation and then set them free in the world to spread their wings and as the Navy says, “Be All That They Can Be!”? As soon as he walked through the security point I immediately felt the lump forming in my throat, the tears in my eyes and the sense that something was missing. After all, being a Single Parent, I raised him by myself for the last 18 years. It has always been he and I. My emotions where screaming through a barrage of feelings. I was very proud of him to follow his dreams and to do what he wanted, to get on that plane for a day and arrive at a place he had never been and to not know any one there. But I did help him build a great foundation and he has a good head on his shoulders. What if something happens - he is half way across the world. But he will make friends to help him and he has gone away before. This continued for a while - this internal debate. It still comes up from time to time.

Please let me know what you would have done and why? How about some suggestions on ways not to worry and any other input and suggestions you may have to help me through this process.

Stay tunes next week for John’s elongated trip and my elevated stress level!