Author: N2OO2

Throughout their lives, we say goodbye to our children. The first day of school can traumatize an otherwise healthy adult. We say goodbye at the gates of summer camp. We say goodbye to junior high as they transition to high school and it feels like it’s a biggie at the time. We say goodbye the first time they board a plane without us. We say goodbye as they turn around and head for their dorm room in college. Saying goodbye in New York is far different than any other goodbye. As Bailey hopped in a cab heading to his room while I hopped in a cab heading back to LGA Airport, I said goodbye to a 2O-year-old kid who will spend the next ten weeks at a CBS internship. The internship will provide him with some growth opportunity, the ten weeks in New York without a parent in driving range will turn him into an adult. A transition will have started that cannot be reversed. He will learn not to call when faced with a problem. He will get lost and figure it out by himself. He’ll meet some great people and some not so nice people. He’ll begin to assess motives, unspoken language cues and he will start the process of figuring out where he belongs in the big world. As a parent, I hope I’ve done my job by preparing him to leave me. He will always come home after these 1O weeks, no question about that, but he’ll never be coming home to stay. It’s time to check out those wings that up to this point have been used, but only within pickup distance. I know he’s ready, I have to believe that, but what about me? Am I ready? That’s the adult part I was talking about. It doesn’t matter if I’m ready. Coming, going, leaving, staying is no longer my choice. It belongs to the kid who just hopped into a NYC taxi cab.

A four-star, French-owned, hotel in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood.