Wow.  Eighteen years went fast!  Now our eldest son is riding shotgun on our way (er, his way) to college.  I’ve got a list of things to tell him on our journey south—things he just has to do to be successful in college and beyond.  It wasn’t THAT long ago that I was in his shoes (34 years is a blink-of-an-eye) and how much has really changed?  Really.

When I went to college in Vermont I had a huge stereo system with huge speakers, crates of albums, clunky typewriter, piles of clothes, guitars and amps—and all of that barely fit.  We literally needed a U-Haul trailer.

Now, we’ve packed our car with fewer clothes (he’s going south where you don’t need all the layers!), his iPod and ear buds for music, and a magazine-thin laptop (oh, if only I had had a word-processor with spelling and grammar check!  I guess I was lucky my typewriter was electric, though “White-Out” was after my time!).

Even his guitars and amps easily fit in the back seat.

As we drive I want to tell him to hit the ground running on his first day of class, get to the library, don’t be a dorm rat, avoid the alcohol and drugs……

Don Hopey wrote this for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette last Saturday:

The other day I told a friend about my daughter’s imminent departure and my trepidations. The friend responded matter-of-factly, “It’s what they’re supposed to do with the wings we give them.”

He’s really leaving home.  I’m not sure my wife and I are ready for this.  But we are sure our son is ready.

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