Dismantling the nest

I am working on a series of essays that is documenting my son's college search and our transition to an empty nest. Will it be a book some day? I don't know. What I do know is that is therapeutic for me. My son is in flux and that is scary for a kid like him who doesn't like change. I don't mind change, but I don't like the unknown. As a parent, I am not sure I am what he needs right now, because I am weighted down with my own insecurities about the future. How will it work for us to pay for college? Will we be able to move out of this area as we hope to do? Where will we end up in relationship to the place our kids end up? Will we need a house big enough for them to return as a safety net? What will my post-kids career look like? What kind of community life do we want to have. Those are the questions at the back of my mind as we look online for college visiting days, register Jonah for the SAT's, and contemplate college essays. Sometimes it feels like the kind of overwhelm I felt as a new mother. What I wouldn't give for the book What To Expect When You Are Expecting Your Child To Go To College.