See you soon, kiddo. I'm hugging my kid goodbye as I drop her off at college. Suddenly, I'm my dad. I'm flashing between being 18, headed away from home, and being in my 50's with my last kid about to move out. It's more than a little weird.

See you soon, kiddo. My dad might literally have said just exactly that. When he did, if he did, it would've been because he was at a loss as to what the hell else to say. What DO you say? It's all been said, or else it long ago needed to be. Too late now. The love? It's already there, she knows, it doesn't need saying, albeit manifesting now as a slight hoarseness of the voice and a shyness of my eyes. Be careful out there? Have fun? Be good? Try hard? Keep your heart open so that life can... yadda yadda yadda? It's been said. It's launch time. Go time. It's....Time.

Launch time is a good way to put it, because a teenager on the verge is like a Saturn 5 rocket on the pad... still chained down, rumbling, smoke billowing across the scene, shaking the ground. They are a force of nature. Ya gotta launch them or they might just explode! So there's that: a certain necessity to the whole thing.

(And you WANT a good, vigorous, conclusive launch. I mean, you really do. Pretty much. Except the part of you who raised this kid from just a little.... rocket.... a little Estes, or one of those water-rockets we pumped up and launched in the 70's. That part doesn't want the rocket to go away.)

See you soon, kiddo? It's a question as much as a statement. It's a hope. Because, what's soon? Freakin' Thanksgiving?! It's August! "See you"? How exactly will I see you? In passing... at holidays... awkwardly... as an old man.... a grandfather..... aaaargh.

All right, all right. Pull the nose up on this thing before it craters into maudlin despair.

See you soon, kiddo. And I will! This particular kid is physically gifted, and is continuing with sports into college. As soon as she can earn field time, we'll start going to games. Maybe sooner! So I will, I hope, get to continue to marvel from afar at the perfect symmetry that is hers, athletically. The size. The strength. The speed. The aggressiveness. The coordination. The combination of those things. The desire. Most of all: the willingness to fail, very publicly, if that's what it takes to succeed. Man, you gotta love that, when you see that in a kid. And I do.

So do a lot of other people. I'm proud to say, I was wise enough to stay out of the way and let many other adults get a hand in her formation: her coaches. She's leaving a many-branched trail of heartache behind her.... as she's supposed to, I suppose. We are all adults here. Our stories are largely written. It's her turn to bat. But for those of us who love and respect her, it's a loss that will leave a mark. And there's a lot of us.

See you soon, kiddo. But I won't. This is the end of an era, no point sugarcoating it. We won't be living together anymore. I LIKE living with this kid. She's good company. She holds down her end of the teeter totter. She shines a powerful light. Next, it will shine elsewhere. That hurts, no other way to say it. I'll "see" her, but it won't be the same. And that breaks this dad's heart.

See you soon, kiddo. See you soon.

Nice one!

dropped the twins, two consecutive weekends.
best test of a parent is what type of adult the kids become and they can't do it in your house , in your town.
mine are 3 states away at rival schools.

Ringworm, I should quit my whining... grin... she's only 2 hours away.

Sure feels like more, though.

Yeah ... I know.

And My last one is a senior in high school this year so ...

I have five ears untill I face this, been dreading it for several already.

Jeff_O,

The last one I sent off wanted to become a veterinarian. I told him if he didn't want to destroy his hopes to stay away from the girls at least the thickness of his jeans. I guess he did. He made it and moved to another state.

He doesn't even answer his phone, but does respond to at text.

She is my youngest (of two) so it's empty nest time around here.

My first kid is about to be a senior at UO, so I've done this before. This one hit me a lot harder; not because of the kid per se, but just the finality of it.

I really, really liked having my children around.

Well..... I might be on the leading edge this fall simply because her school starts so early and they wanted her there a week early for soccer 2-a-days... but I know my hurtin' heart <g> will be common all across America these next few weeks.

She wants to be a doctor (anesthesiologist) which is on par with becoming a vet in terms of difficulty I hear. I don't know if she'll pull it off. She was a huge fish in this small, rural pond, academically and athletically. How she fares in a much bigger pond full of other big fish remains to be seen. But she's highly competitive. I wouldn't bet against her.

Fish... rockets.... sheesh!

I'm gettin' all misty eyed.




Dave

Jeff;
Good afternoon to you sir, I trust you're all keeping cool enough in the latest warm spell.

We went through what you're experiencing last fall and as I type she's packing her stuff up again as her Mom will be taking her to university in Victoria on Vancouver Island tomorrow.

I'd be driving down too like I did last year, but we're classic "sandwich" folks and I'm taking my Mom in for day surgery in another direction tomorrow so I get to switch from parent to offspring role instead.

There's a couple things that strike me as ironic in the whole parenting thing, the first of which is the fact we train them for freedom pretty much from the offset, all the while dreading the day it arrives.

The other is of course how much faster the ride has been than I thought it would be. I can't articulate why I'd believed it might be a bit slower than it's proven to be - but for us emphatically it hasn't.

Anyway all the best to you all and the rest of the parents taking their kids to various places away from home in the next couple of weeks. Good luck in the upcoming hunting season as well.

Dwayne

Scott F,

I'll be pulling for her. I have a friend who was an anesthesiologist at the local hospital. One day I was talking to him about a Lexus or something and making payments. He asked,
"You have any idea what I make?"
"I guess a quarter mill maybe."
"Yep. The hospital pays me a salary of $20,000 a month."

So I hope your "diddo" can hang in there at least she will be financially rewarded.

Yeah, I sent my son off yesterday for his sixth year. Can't wait to get him off the pay roll...maybe then I can get another deer lease. powdr

I know the feeling, after a great week of working on our Montana cabin together last week,my daughter flew back to UNC for her senior year yesterday.... , my oldest son went to college in Bozeman and now lives in Bend, and our youngest is spending the winter in New Zealand before heading back to college out west. But we'll be together for hunting season and the holidays, somehow we get by.

My youngest graduated from a maritime academy this past May and is now 4000 miles away. I figure, as a parent, my job was to give them the confidence to go off and make it on their own. I'd like to think that they will do well.

She loves money and nice things.

Dwayne, well wishes back atcha.

My wife Cyn and I were reminiscing about when my oldest daughter turned 2 or 3, it just blew our minds that some far away day she was going to be in KINDERGARTEN!

That day turned out to be not so far away after all, and yea, it just FLIES by.

After the last one left we looked at each other for 2 weeks and it was kinda weird, then we realized Hey we are alone! Game on!

Don't worry, once she tells her less than stellar friends about her idiot dad and his pot farm, things will get interesting again for you.

I am in College Station now doing the same with my youngest.

Ya raise 'em up
Ya send 'em off to school (all teary eyed)
Next thing you know they come back with a passel of little heathens!
Sometimes I think Mom was right - should'a gone straight to grandkids.
Feed 'em coffee, chocolate, and sody pop - shake well - and ship 'em out!

There isn't a more helpless feeling in the world than watching your kids leave the nest. My son is off on his own now, and moving from Indiana to North Carolina shortly here. My wife is going down for the last Indiana visit over Labor Day. My daughter is a freshman at college this year, but will be living at home. She's moved out twice and come back, so this is not as traumatic for us.

There will be lots of empty nesters the next couple weeks here. Life starts anew. It's just a matter of how we choose to embrace it.

Best wishes to all our empty nesters out there.

Good job young man!

You would a stuck it in the right hole back in the day maybe you could of spawned some young-ins of your own.

Just a tip or a reminder for all of you younger guys--your kids may be adults out of the house, even married with their own kids but you are never finished being a parent.

Concerns, cares, worries--and that's if things go well; then there are the grandkids and in a sense you start over again.

But I get ahead of you. 🙄 😄

Taking my youngest to Columbia University in NYC next Saturday.

I am dreading it but she'll do great.

From MT to NYC, quite a change for the young lady.

I am going to miss her terribly bad.

+1

Sad that some people procreate...

George;
Thanks for the reminder tonight sir, it's surely the truth as far as we're finding out anyway.

Our eldest will be getting married in a couple months and that's been an adjustment too - though we all saw it coming for some time.

For the other fathers out there I'll say that for me I had to learn how each of our girls preferred to communicate with me away from home.

Our eldest for instance is okay with chatting with me on facebook and will phone if she wants to really get something sorted. So yah, I've now got an account on the dreaded site and have learned to negotiate it enough to be there for her whenever she wants me to be.

On the other hand our youngest doesn't really communicate with me on social media and is not really a conversationalist on the phone typically - but - she'll text me back whenever I reach out to her. So there I've learned to text and try to do it at least weekly so she knows her old man still loves her and is interested in how her life is going.

Anyway I hope that helps someone out there tonight and is taken in the vein it's offered.

All the best to you and yours this fall George and good luck on your hunts too.

Dwayne

I will confess that I loved the idea when my son told me he was going to live at home while he is an undergraduate so he could save as much money as possible. We live near a world class university, so there was no compromise as far as academics were concerned. He is majoring in genetics and plans on going to medical school so this will be a nice seamless transition for me when he moves out in a couple more years. I am so glad we still hunt together but look forward to the day he gets accepted into med school and I can call him doctor.

Dwayne, that made me smile on a couple of levels--isn't it funny how different siblings can be? We have two daughters who are polar opposites physically and personality-wise yet are equally dear to us.

May your ventures afield this fall too be be touched by the sun and amber in it's light.

Been wondering where the California [bleep] has been. I have stuck it in the right hole, son.