Reality seldom meets high expectations, but happy to have had a chance to get to campus and see the kiddo. Got some good hikes in (Ontario Ridge trail over Shell Beach was beautiful).
The first few hours littered with awkward boundary-setting pushback. Okay: heard. Calls will be a safe space without reference to the grades, deadlines, paperwork. Hopefully we'll get more calls (well, more pick ups). I think we're good there (I had to join the military to be able to be able to set my boundaries - dramatically more extreme).
Pretty good after that. The kiddo is well settled in and doing well.
Except for the really heavy stuff, I tend to welcome new experiences. The initial dropoff five weeks ago was a huge transition and a totally new experience; there was a lot of novelty to it all.
This goodbye hit harder. I knew what that empty room would be like, no comfort in any novelty to it. I was more intensely sad this time around.
But sitting with my wife having a beer at Wooly's overlooking the Pismo Beach Pier (we stayed at Dolphin Cove Motel, whose lot has a 90-degree ocean view west and north) filled that absence pretty quickly.
Getting home, the empty room was not a novelty and it didn't trigger any pangs.
I'm disappointed that I didn't get to say hello to any of you in this wonder Parent Family, but we have a few more years, yes. I will say Parents Weekend will likely not be on our schedule (because of the hotel cost), but other trips (and local gettogethers) will.
I do really feel "Launched a Bird, gained a Flock." Knowing that I can share these Big Feels and hear "I feel ya" and know that we have a big family all feeling something similar or having been through it AND WE'RE ALL ALRIGHT provides a rock solid foundation of optimism.
Thanks, Flock!
