Filling Time: TwinLife Empty-Nesting

There’s something special about seeing your teen become an adult – almost right before your eyes. This past weekend my husband and I travelled six hours to see our son in his new home. While I filled time in meetings with the parents’ council – and yes, of course I’m joining the collegiate version of the PTA at both my kids’ colleges – my husband filled time walking a proverbial marathon with my son. They toured the city, the campus, and my son’s new favorite haunts, comparing step counts at dinner. My husband loved seeing our boy in his element, even if he complained for the next two days about how tired he was from all the walking.

We met his friends, and he has a lot of new friends, and they were clearly fans of my kid. We hung out with parents, and they were people we’d want to see again. We went to a football game, and it was exactly the kind of “fan experience” my son had hoped for when searching for the college fit. The place, the space, the people – it was all right. It was him. It was the fit.

At the same time, we listened to him talk about his classes, his attempts to balance academics and extracurriculars with work and a social life, and the antics that rise up in life with the first tastes of decision-making freedom. He walked confidently, shared openly, and navigated his world with an adultness that was both new and exciting.

And although I’d probably prefer not to fill time with a 12 hour round-trip drive to see him, it was – and will continue to be – worth it to be a part of his new world, even if just for a little while.