We leave later today to drive 1000 miles to take my younger child to college, where we will leave her and see what happens. Hopefully, we have prepared her for what awaits her, or at least as well as can be expected.
I love her dearly, of course, but I look forward to this. In my philosophy, the purpose of life is to pass your genes on to the next generation. Couple that with other things like "If you're going to do something, do it right" and you get the implied obligation to prepare your offspring for life as an independent being. That obligation never ends of course, but this is an important step toward independence, an important milestone, and I always look forward to those. I'm anxious to see how she does. I'm curious to see how well-prepared she is, as that is largely a reflection of myself and her mother, as well as herself.
So this will be interesting. Head out this afternoon, drive all day Wednesday, arrive Thursday morning. Move an entire SUV full of stuff into a dorm room. Leave Friday morning to come back to a somewhat emptier house (Son of Orbert still lives with us, but we don't see him a lot). Mrs. Orbert will be crying during much of this. I will be busy driving, and thinking about stuff, as always.