This is it. In a week, I’ll be helping to pack up the car, getting ready for the first of many trips back and forth to Boston. Now that it’s upon us, it does seem like the summer flew by. At the same time, I suspect A felt like this day would never come. He is so anxious and excited to start this adventure that I could be sad about it if I wanted to be, which honestly, other than missing his face terribly, I can’t be.

We’ve practiced all the things. He knows how to do his laundry; he’s familiarized with the T and I have his Charlie card loaded for him. All his dorm “essentials” have been picked out and packed. All that he really has to throw in a bag are the clothes to get him through the summer to fall transition. He’s communicated with his roommates, and they seem like a great bunch of kids.

I’m sure we will have more than a few bumps in the road as we navigate the check-in process. For one thing, with parking at such a premium, we have a scheduled 20-minute window to pull up and unload the entire car. What could possibly go wrong? A is moving in to one of the oldest dorms on campus, and while the historical significance isn’t lost on him, he is a little nervous about all the amenities it will or won’t have. It won’t matter, because it’s only for his freshman year, after which he will move into a different style of dormitory that is more similar to an apartment complex. I told him that this is all part of the experience.

As much as I wanted this to be a family affair, the other two are busy with sports seasons and preparing for the first day of school, which will be in a few days, and by leaving them at home with their aunt and uncle, I will also get to spend an extra day in the city. I’m telling myself it’s a mini vacation for me, after all the work we put in to the house this summer, but really, I just want to be available if he suddenly realizes that he forgot something important, or maybe just wants to have one more lunch on Mom’s dime before he has to start managing his own finances and dining card.

I don’t expect the phone to ring, though. I’ve tried to remember my first day of college life, how exactly I said goodbye to my parents, and I really can’t. I do remember sitting alone in my room. My roommate was from Rhode Island, and after checking in and dropping her stuff off, she returned home until her classes started. Someone else knocked on my door. It was a super cute guy from down the hall, looking for someone with a micro-fridge to heat up a frozen cheeseburger. His had tripped the breaker. Mine lasted for about 30 seconds before it, too, tripped our breaker. That was how we started to learn that every third room had better power than the two next to it, and those were the only rooms that allowed the microwaves to work long enough to heat anything up.

I don’t remember being terribly homesick, although it did take me a pretty long time to work up the courage to go anywhere in the city beyond the limits of school. I’m hoping that our visits and frequent use of the T has already given A the confidence to use it regularly. One of my old Boston friends thoughtfully recommended a tourist guide to all the sights in Boston as a graduation present. I’ve gone through and highlighted a few that we haven’t already visited. It also helps that he already has some favorite places to eat. Even though they’re in some of the more touristy sections of the city, at least it will give him a destination to go to get out and moving around the city.

I’ve also been keeping tabs on his orientation programs and other information that’s come in from his residential and academic advisers. I can’t help it, as old habits die hard. I know it looks like helicopter parenting, but the fact is, I’m a little jealous of his adventure, and I just am genuinely curious about all of the options that are on the table for him

Even though it was 30 years ago, it feels close enough that I remember things I wish I’d done differently. Mainly, I wish I’d taken a lot fewer naps, and done a lot more exploring while I was in the thick of it. I wish I’d strayed a little bit more outside of my major fields of study and taken more “fun” classes. I wish I had learned about the massively discounted student rates at just about every cultural activity in the city, from museums to performances to restaurants. I did a lot of those things, but not until my junior and senior years.

He’ll figure it out. And, I’ll come back home and with the other two, we’ll figure out our new normal. I still haven’t figured out how to cook for only four people instead of five, so cooking for only three is going to be a challenge. It has already been odd only sending two kids out of the house for band camp every morning. Ten school uniforms a week, instead of 15. I’m going to miss the late night talks that A and I have started to have regularly, but I am glad that technology will allow us to be a little bit more in touch with each other than the weekly Sunday evening phone calls that I used to plan with my family.

He’ll be back for holidays and breaks, maybe even a quick weekend trip or two, and of course, he’ll be home next summer, but he’s going to be a different person, full of independence and new experiences. I have a long way to go to become an empty nester, but I’m going to be different, too. It’s going to be a year of changes, hopefully all ones for the better.