Year One in the Rearview Mirror

A year ago at this time, I was shedding tears left and right as I struggled through the last of our baby's "lasts" of senior year in preparation for graduation. How was I going to live in my empty nest?

How indeed?

Strangely, after struggling through the first few weeks – OK, months – of empty nesting last fall, the time went crazy fast. I can't believe today was Carter's final final of his freshman year at UW-Platteville.

Made the trek down there myself since hubby had to coach baseball this afternoon. I brought some totes and a large suitcase so I could help College Boy pack the last of his clothes into those. All of it was clean, some fresh out of the dryer! He had everything else good to go. Pretty much. So we got it loaded in 4 trips each to the CRV.

His RA officially checked him out and we were on the road heading home by 2 p.m. with Platteville and Year One in the rearview mirror.

For the first time ever, he didn't sleep on the trip so we could actually have a conversation – when I wasn't compelled to sing along to an '80s station I found on the radio. Got home a little after 5 and he was out of the house by 6:30. I told him I didn't need to capture all of his time the first night because he's here all summer.

How unlike me. Is it possible to turn off the Clingy Empty Nester switch so easily? I guess we'll see at the end of the summer. But take heart, current parents of seniors, you will get through this. Don't skip through the tears of sadness, joy, pride and grief. They are all part of the process! And necessary, I think.

A year from now you'll be picking up your Finals Week survivor and their piles of stuff and they will tell you, too, that they feel like high school was a lifetime ago.

On that I can agree.