Last Day with My Kid

Tomorrow my son leaves for college and I don't get to go. My daughter starts her Junior year of high school on Thursday so someone had to stay with her. Since my husband has more vacation time than I do, he's the one that gets to go move the boy into his dorm.

Chris is so excited he can hardly sleep. He was up early this morning to go eat breakfast with a high school friend. Today he is doing laundry and packing. Pretty much everything else is done.

We have a 10 pound rock that he has to take with him to school. There is a tradition that before the first day of school, the freshmen climb the mountain with their ten pound rock from home, whitewash the rocks, and add them to the giant M on the side of the mountain. You can see this M from all over Golden. It stands for Mines, obviously, and it is lit at night. It's very pretty, really. When they graduate, they are driven up the mountain to take a rock with them on their new adventures. I think it's a cool tradition.

I made him a first aid kit last night. I went to the store and bought all kinds of things he might need and put them in a black zippered bag with compartments. Maybe he'll remember to use it when he has a headache or a blister.

I am torn between sadness because he will be gone and excitement because he is doing something so cool! Maybe he'll remember to call home or text us occasionally.