They're leaving home ....

<p>Ok, so my daughter is heading back early to "work on her senior thesis" oh,and see the boyfriend.... But this trip reminds me of other years. She has a 7 AM flight tomorrow. Is on the phone with a friend and also with another on her computer, nothing packed, nothing ready.... Have any of yours become more like "grownups" in their packimg and prep? We're sad to see this vacation end...might be her last long vacation home. Any other kids heading out yet?
Maybe I'm just old and need 8 hours of sleep before the airport trip...</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>your other child who was separated at birth by a few years lives at my house!! She says “Ma, don’t worry” and is usually tossing stuff in the suitcase right before we walk out of the door. I am so organized when it comes to traveling that I often wonder where did I go wrong?</p>

<p>My kids are not in college now. But even in college, they did not come home for much more than a week ever. This time, we have one kid for a week and one for 9 days. This is one of my D’s last night at home too. There’s hope…she is 22 and she actually IS packed. But she is on the phone right now too, and has to be up early.</p>

<p>Boys pack in the smallest duffel bags - more like gym bags. This is for 1-2 week trips!</p>

<p>Well, it seems that New Years plans are in place and entertainment venue tickets bought so it’s time to wander toward packing… First things first…
Good night, I will be up early.</p>

<p>I see your D has her priorities straight!^^^
My D came home for Thanksgiving with a single carry-on, and by that I mean her purse. Somehow, she managed.</p>

<p>Seven years ago, my son didn’t start to pack to go away to college until the night before – and he was still throwing things in the car five minutes before he left the next day. And he was lucky he had a college dorm room to go to. Several months earlier, he had dropped the “Application for On-Campus Housing” form on the floor in his room and forgotten about it. If I had not happened to spot it while looking for something else in his room three days before the deadline, he would have had nowhere to live on campus.</p>

<p>Fast-forward seven years.</p>

<p>Now he is a graduate student on the other side of the country who only comes home for a one-week visit once a year at Christmastime.</p>

<p>This year, he took the flight I asked him to take (so that I could pick him up at the airport at a reasonable hour instead of in the middle of the night) and arrived with a suitable gift for the family. Within a day, he talked with me about things he would like to do (visiting friends, etc.) while he was home, so that we could work out the use of the car without anyone being inconvenienced. Despite the time zone difference, he got up at a reasonable hour and was quiet (if not asleep) when everyone else was sleeping.</p>

<p>The day before his departure, he washed, folded, and packed all his clothes, cleaned up his room, and downloaded a boarding pass for his flight. Before leaving the next day, he actually searched the house for things he might have left in other rooms, made his bed, emptied the wastebasket in his room, and put his towels in the dirty laundry. And he was ready to go well before the time when I was planning to drive him to the airport.</p>

<p>I figure that aliens must have taken over his brain. </p>

<p>Either that, or he’s actually growing up.</p>

<p>S1 is still home and isn’t going anywhere. S2 left day before yesterday on a research trip. He’ll be back for a day or two in mid-Jan before heading back to college.</p>

<p>S1 ('09 grad) has forever been the one flying by the seat of his pants, his room looking like a something exploded in it, always leaving something behind. At T’giving he brought his computer but left the charger at his apt.(3 states away). He was just here for a week and left on Monday with friends to go to a Bowl game and then meet more friends for New Years…always on the go leaving a path of destruction in his wake.
After he left on Monday, I opened the closet door in his room and found 5 shirts he had left behind…par for the course. I’ll be mailing them to him next week when he get back to his apt. He has been this way ever since high sch.</p>

<p>You may wonder what this helter skelter almost 24 yr. old does for a living…
He’s a Spec. Ops Officer in one of the most elite competitive units in the U.S. Navy.
Don’t worry. He’s great at what he does.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Hah! My Ds have made this very same observation about their boyfriends and guy friends!</p>

<p>Marian- love your story!</p>

<p>It gives the rest of us hope.</p>

<p>S1 arrived here on his 2 week leave with two backpacks and a giant rubbermaid tub with a myriad of things thrown in! He drives a truck (with no bed cover) and it was raining so had to stop buy K-Mart and buy the tub on his way out of town!</p>

<p>My daughter leaves on Sunday and we are sad. She’s grown and matured so much this year even friends and neighbors have made comments to that effect! I’m really happy for her but the three weeks just went by too quickly!</p>

<p>She still procrastinates with everything except school work. Just texted friends today to find out what’s happening for New Years - fortunately there is a party nearby which her friend said she could join them at. Packing? Hasn’t even figured out laundry to be done yet but is going shopping tomorrow and Saturday.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Great post! I think he’s already grown up. Congratulations. Mission accomplished!</p>