My life feels like it has come a full 360 degrees. Twenty-six years ago last week, I married my bride and we experienced five years together before having our two boys. And now, this past weekend, we took our youngest to college some 11 hours away. Bittersweet is a very appropriate and fitting way to describe my feelings right now. I'll admit that I am looking forward to having time to do things I want to do. I might take up a new hobby, I think I will get back in shape and lose a good 85-90 pounds, and meal time will be a lot less hectic with just my wife and me to look after.
But already things have changed in a way that I know will never be the same again. When we came home last night, the house was quiet and my youngest son's room seemed eerily empty. No laughter, or questions, or things to figure out. His room now is simply a holding places of memories of raising him for the past 18 years. As I looked at the medals and trophies, I knew the days of weekly track meets are gone forever and will be traded for distant phone calls from various states reporting on how he did. Pictures have been left behind of memories that were special to him. Memorabilia of things that impacted his life now sit on shelves, only to be re-visited with occasional trips home for breaks and holidays.
On the other hand, the boys are doing what they are supposed to be doing. They are becoming men and figuring out how to carve out of life for themselves and for their future families. As for me, I am going back to a life (for the most part) with how things started out 26 years ago, just Dena and me.
And I am pretty sure all of us will be just fine.
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