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Ben's departure has been postponed for a number of logistical reasons. I support his desire to move closer to school, but personally, I am ecstatic.
For the past few weeks I have listened sympathetically as friends, colleagues and clients grieve their college-bound children. Leaving home is an important rite of passage for many young people, and one I know we will have to come to terms with sooner or later, but I am happy that, for now, it is later.
He began his third year of college the Thursday before Labor Day, with little fanfare. I made the requisite stupid Mom jokes about looking forward to making the trip with him and meeting his teachers, but in reality I kept forgetting the exact start date. Thursday and Friday after school he went out with friends, and I woke up periodically and checked my phone for text messages, as usual.
We spent that Saturday at the US Open, because Ben wanted to see one of his favorite players, Novak Djokovic, and ostensibly because I wanted to see Serena Williams, but actually I just wanted to spend the day with Ben (though the tennis was terrific). Afterward we had Chinese food in Flushing and practiced our fading Chinese phrases on the wait staff. Then we went our separate ways, but the three of us met up over dinner on Wednesday to catch up on the Doctor Who episode we had missed because of the tennis.
All of this would have seemed humdrum, and boring, to my single, child free self. Yet I find myself wanting to freeze these moments of ordinary life. I know that life=change. Somehow, though, everything seems just perfect the way it is, and I wish we could just go on like this forever.
