Orientation

We took the twins to orientation last week. Or… really one kid. The other didn’t have orientation at their school, so we hung out and read by the river while the other child learned how move-in would work and their way around campus.

There was an optional program for parents, but the kid worried that no other parents would attend and we would look strangely overprotective. We dropped them off with a breezy promise that they would take tons of notes. We watched a few parents go upstairs to their separate sessions; it was too late to join them because registration was closed.

I felt myself starting to hyperventilate, so we went outside so I could fall apart.

It’s a strange balance of being proud that I raised them to be self-sufficient and confident but also an empty feeling as they leave behind two they-shaped holes. The pain is physical along with emotional. I feel this horrible ache as they peel away.