Dexter Iowa Community Site

Consider this quote from Abe Lincoln

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

It’s little hard to believe that the summer is pretty much gone now. For anyone below the age of eighteen who isn’t in full panic mode right now, it probably doesn’t help to learn that the beginning of school is less than two weeks away. Although as a parent the beginning of a new school year tends to be a little exciting, I’m not sure I was prepared for moving the oldest back to college this past weekend.

Moving into the dorms at college is one thing, but when you decide to take your living arrangement off campus it brings a whole different set of challenges and thoughts. Last year was fun when she was in the dorms, mostly because I could just show up, walk through the sea of students and bang on the door for a visit. My biggest concern was where we would go out to lunch and if her fish lived through the week. But an apartment off campus, well that is a whole different deal. No longer is there anyone to bang on the door at midnight telling them to keep the noise down. It means being a grown up and starting to learn about living around people you have no control over.

As the Dad, my job now is to fix things. Maybe it’s replacing the nasty toilet seat in the bathroom or installing a new shower head with more settings than freezing and scalding, or maybe it’s hanging a curtain rod, but I feel that in the future every trip to visit will require me to remember to bring tools with me. It isn’t hard to think back and remember that little girl who would hold my hand when she was scared of doing something new, like petting a new animal. Those were good years for being a Dad and as she grew up it never seemed to me that she was growing up as quickly as she was. Now I get calls about where best to find renters insurance, what type of cleaning supplies work on glass and where she should set her thermostat when the roommates aren’t looking.

As a parent you hope that you have given your children skills that they can use and are able to handle themselves in the big bad outside world. I guess maybe I’ve been lucky in the fact that for the most part she makes good choices (well except for the last couple of boyfriends) and can manage to be not only a contributing member of society, but a genuinely nice person also. I’m sure that there will always be a place for Dad, which probably will deal with moving heavy things and making sure that she has real food in the apartment. Letting go of any child who is growing up is never an easy thing, however I don’t doubt for a minute that in the end she will be just fine, and honestly so will I. See you next week…remember, we’re all in this together.