The feeling of being independent and letting go of control
Independence and feeling like you’re in control of your own life is liberating. No one is there to tell you to clean your room, prevent you from having ice cream for dinner, nagging you to study. You call the shots now. You decide what you’re going to do and when you’re going to do them. Along with this new-found independence is the idea of consequences. I assure you, at some point, you’re going to call home and beg your parents to just tell you what to do. Making your own decisions are both awesome and terrifying. For my mom, letting go of her full control over me was gradual. Her advice to parents would be to allow freedom long before college so your children make their own mistakes and don’t feel as if the rug was just suddenly pulled out from under them the day they leave home. Although loss of control is a frightening idea, watching your kids flourish and grow on their own is a proud feeling.
The homesickness and empty-nest syndrome
To be honest, I thought I would be so much more homesick than I really was. There were nights that I missed my own bed with my puppy snuggling close, my mom’s homemade comfort food, and the coziness of my own home for sure, but I think that we all anticipate the struggle of homesickness as much larger than it turns out to be. You make a new home there in your tiny dorm room, and a second family is created amongst you and your closest friends. Home is really where the heart is, but it’s possible for your heart to be in many different places at once. Now that I’m home from school on summer break, I feel this nagging homesick feeling for my school and my second family, my friends. No matter where you go, you will long for the places you grew up. Growing up doesn’t always have to mean physically growing older, but where your experiences made you emotionally grow up too. My mom’s “empty-nest syndrome,” as she would call it, could be best described as going from having my constant loudness and dramatic episodes, which I’m still convinced that she misses when I’m gone, to having the house extremely boring and quiet. There’s no one to leave dirty plates on the coffee table, no one to forget to put the milk back in the fridge, and no one to scream bloody murder over a spider being in the shower.
