jfv wrote: Tue Aug 13, 2024 9:11 am
Moved my oldest daughter, an incoming freshman at Illinois State University, into her residence hall yesterday.
Was unemotional yesterday, focused on making sure everything went well.
Am a wreck this morning and am having trouble focusing on anything else.
Oof. We were OK last year until our kid saw us out--we suddently collapsed sobbing into a heap and couldn't talk for a few minutes.
My wife and I were trying to get our shit together in the car after she went back up to her room, and I remember asking my wife, choking back tears, "She's gonna be OK, right?"
Which makes me laugh now, but it was an earnest question, some kinda very very deep-seated protective reflex.
Everyone went through a lot from March 2020 on, and if you had kids of school age, everything that happened that year into the next spring was destabilizing in a special way. For us it was also profoundly bonding and contributed to the intensity of shipping her off.
I don't expect it to be anything like that this year. Hope not!