Letting Go

It's back to school time, so of course everywhere you turn there are ads about sending the kids off with everything they need, whether it be for pre-school or college.  Everywhere I turn I've been hearing about the empty nesters that are sending their kids off to college, hearing and reading about tips how to cope. Constant stories about how terribly sad the parents are that this chapter of their life is closing and so on.

My husband and I took our oldest daughter to college this past weekend.  For months now since before her high school graduation, we have been hearing others warn us about how hard it will be to go through this change in our lives.

I can't tell you the number of times people would ask us if we were feeling sad and going to miss her. Everytime we would say "No." and smile and sometimes add a comment like, "it's about time, or it's going to be great."  Of course we recieved some looks of surprise, and I know alot of them thought it was denial on our part.

Were we bad parents?  How can we not be sad about this time in our life? After we got her moved into the dorm and took care of all the details that go with that, we said good-bye and gave all the advise that parents give. Not a tear was shed.  Oh, no! Shame on us, we must be bad parents.....

Newsflash!  It's not about US!!

We are EXCITED, and have been!  Why?  Because she has a Tremendous opportunity in front of her!  We love the college that she is attending. When we look at the many things that the school has to offer, it's as if the world is her oyster!  Like any other University, it's a community in and of itself, and it completely caters to it's students. It's all up to her now if she wants to take advantage of it all. 

What does this have to do with Personal Development?  Life is not all about YOU!  When you are feeling sad, lonely, depressed, etc. it's about you. It's actually a bit selfish, if you think about it. 

In this case we were able to realize the journey was also about her. It makes it very easy to be happy and excited about the possible directions her life can go.

:) Brenda

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