Going to College--Monday Memory

When our oldest was off to college, we flew to Boston with him. The first is the hardest to let go. It's a scary world out there.

When we got to Boston, we stayed in a hotel close to Havard Square which was a good thing because everyone WALKS everywhere in Boston. We both lost 5 pounds the 4 days we were there, just from walking. I commented that when you are in the west, if someone sees you walking they ask if you need a ride; when you are in the east if someone sees you driving, they wonder where you are going.

I called around to see about a tour bus and they were sooooo expensive. For some unknown reason, I called a limosine service and found out I could have a limo for the whole day for the price of a ticket for just one of us on a tour bus.

Our limo driver took us all over town, we saw all the tourist spots and even went to his favorite pizza place where we stayed in the car, in the middle of a VERY narrow street, and he ran in and got us pizza. It was so kewl. Everywhere we went, people looked at us trying to figure out what celebrities we were.

But the real memory is this:

As we walked our son to his dorm the last day, I looked at the other parents bringing their children to school. All of the students were bright eyed, smiling, standing tall, walking with alacrity while the parents looked worried, slightly slumped, acutely aware of the reality of life.

As I look back on that, it serves as a reminder to me to always keep that childlike innocence around, to remember what it feels like to be excited for a new adventure, to find joy in every experience and not allow the realities of life to weigh heavy on me and bring me down.