Catch 22

Lone Star... My hat is off to you, and my heart goes out to you. My firstborn leaves Monday for school. I feel your pain.

LoneStar, you are exactly where I was a couple of years ago. While my son was only going 120 miles (not 1200), I really struggled with the thought that my "little boy" would no longer be down the hall in his room with the Playstation LOL. I'm not ashamed to admit that I had a couple of teary nights prior to our moving him out. When we pulled away from the dorm that first evening I was also very emotional. But 10 minutes down the road I was fine. The one thing you have to come to grips with is that things will never be the same. When they come home after being away for a school year they're more like visitors in some respects. They will have tasted the independence of college life and there may be some adjustments. It was actually tougher following the freshmen year than this past year (I guess we knew what to expect).

Now he's transferring 400 miles or so. He'll be farther away, but we've learned to deal with it. As parents, part of our job is to prepare our kids for independence. In many ways our relationship has gone to a new level.

It's not all bad. That won't stop the tugging at your heart, but we all manage to adapt.

We are experiencing the same roller coaster of emotions. Our first born child will be leaving this fall and we couldn't be happier for him and his dream of playing baseball. Of course we will miss him terribly... he'll be about 250 miles away.... but we've been preparing him to be an adult for the past 18 years and I'm proud of who he's become.
We just returned from college orientation and it helped me a lot. Seeing him for a few days in the college environment made it seem real. We chose his schedule and I saw his dorm, eating hall, etc. It feels like a perfect fit and he couldn't be happier. I hope you'll have the chance to experience orientation and that it will help you feel better. It sure helped me.