<p>I've been reading threads about HS students graduating and going off to college, but how about those of us who have college students graduating?</p>
<p>I find myself again choking up when I see my daughters friends (or their parents!) and realize that the end has come for my daughter to see her friends on breaks. Now, they are getting jobs out of the area, going on to grad school, etc. AND my daughter is moving on too. My daughters plan is to teach in China for a year starting in mid-August. I'm trying to focus on the positives and not think about how she won't be home for Christmas and the unknowns of her living so far away. Just like when she went off to college, I wanted to be totally happy for her but found myself selfishly sad for myself. So far, I've been very good about keeping it to myself - I'm the one that suggested China.</p>
<p>Any other parents of college grads going through these mixed emotions of unknown futures and the exciting new stage?</p>
<p>Maybe this is easier for me because my kids (both graduating this spring) haven't really come home for many breaks, nor spent lots of time hanging out with HS friends. We see them, but more on their turf than ours. </p>
<p>Go visit your daughter in China! What an opportunity!</p>
<p>Can't say as I've seen our daughter that much. She has two breaks during her college year but this year she went to Kenya and England for most of her Winter break and then Peru for most of her Spring break. We go out once a year to see her at college - this year's "visit" will be at graduation. During the summer break she has spent most of her time working away from home at camps. Last summer was nice because she worked at a nearby day camp and lived at home. But we're close. My only daughter and the one person that will immediately take up for me if the boys start teasing, and vice versa.</p>
<p>I think it's more psychological - knowing that we could get to her at college within a few hours plane ride if we needed to versus getting to China and then the great unknown of her future.</p>
<p>I'm hoping we can visit her in China, still working out the details of getting her there!</p>
<p>Mods - I meant to post this thread over in the cafe. Can it be moved?</p>
<p>Not only did my son go to college on a different coast from where he grew up, but we have now moved away and are living in the mid-west. I know that this is hard on him, but he has to make his life with the friends he made in college.</p>
<p>kathiep: my good friend taught English in China last summer and had a positive experience. Most of the people teaching English there are in their early 20s and hang out together and have a good time. Since she has travelled so much, I would think she would do very well with this first job.</p>
<p>hi bookiemom, do you have any suggestions what and how to benefit the most in his trip as my S will spend a month teaching English in China and after that he has free time of 2 months and he is wondering what to do? travelling in China or Japan or...he has some ideas and he seems to have no idea whenever we discuss with him?</p>
<p>My daughter lived in Brazil for 15 months after graduating college - 10 months on a Fulbright fellowship and 5 months on her own working in an export business. After returning home, she got a job in Manhattan and just moved into her own place (a subway ride to work, and an hour from us). We're thrilled and happy for her.</p>