Mom's Thoughts on Paradise

Last night, I experienced the return of my daughter following her freshman year away at college. Although she departed for college with a car only half full, on her return home, the car was packed to the hilt. I can't imagine how she fit so much stuff into her tiny dorm room.

Sadly, it now adorns my living room, scattered from one end to the other. There's tons of laundry to do as she hasn't done any laundry for 2 weeks. And, there's a deadline to get everything completed as she leaves in less than a week for her summer job at Mt. Ranier National Park.

It's hard to believe that in a few short days, she's departing for her cross-country journey. I'm excited for her, but the parent in me worries about the millions of things that could happen (like getting lost, driving in snow, volcanoes erupting, hoardes of zombies, etc). But, this is just part of the process, and I survived the 1st year of college, so I guess I can survive this. The hard part will be the limited communication as cell phone and internet access will be limited.