Getting Ready to Go

It's sunny outside and we bought rain gear today. We're beginning the long and expensive process of getting the young one outfitted for university. What does a young man need to begin life on his own? Apparently he needs four pairs of jeans, a fleece jacket and a rain jacket. An especially good quality rain jacket; it's the Pacific Northwest.  

Did I mention a new bicycle? He's going to need that too. He's parking his car off campus for the duration.  The school ID is a bus pass, so that and a bike should get him where he wants to go most of the time. There's other things he's going to need, of course. Sheets and blankets, towels and a trunk to pack everything in.

Then there are the other things we have tried to make sure he has. The common sense not to go to a party and ride home with someone who has drank too much. The sense of self to not get lost in a campus full of other young people trying to find their way for the first time out on their own. The knowledge that he is loved by and precious to, not only his parents, but his grandparents and uncles. Respect for himself and his own opinions and an open mind to listen to other people's even when he doesn't agree. A belief in his responsibilities as a citizen of this country and this world. There isn't a trunk large enough to carry all those things, but I'm fairly sure he has them packed away and ready to go. 

A couple of years ago he went on a school trip to Costa Rica. He was gone for eight days and the boy I sent down, came back a man. I know the man I send to the university will become a much different and more worldly person. I can hardly wait to meet him. I have to believe we've given him the tools he needs to handle the process.