Getting Ready to Launch

Frankie's been packing for college. This is just SOME of what he'll be bringing. (yikes.)

 

Frankie is the reason I started blogging in the first place. It was years ago, already. Amazing how quickly time flies. For those of you just tuning in, Frankie, my oldest son, has Crohns, and had serious problems that landed him in the hospital. At the time, the doctors would not make any promises -- they wouldn't say they could fix it, they wouldn't say he'd be OK.

So I started blogging to "keep in touch" with the family and friends who wanted to know what was happening -- which changed day to day -- and to keep myself busy, I guess, and because whenever I have a problem the only thing that helps me is to talk about it obsessively, and I really didn't have anyone to talk to like that. So I wrote it all out and put it on the blog, and that's the "Frankie Report" blog on my sidebar.

When Frankie got better, I handed over that blog to him, and told him HE should blog. But he's not really interested in writing. He's an engineer like his dad. But the blog is still there, with all the old posts, if you are interested. His last post was a list of everything he wanted to bring to college.

He's off to college to learn engineering. He's feeling great. He's had probably the best summer of his life. He is all optimism and expectation, and ready to jump out of the nest.

I'm not sad that he's going. I know I'm going to miss him, and I get moments of sadness thinking that by this time next week, he won't be here any more. But I'm not sad, because I'm happy that he's getting this chance.

When he was in the hospital, and also before that when he was so sick for all of those years, I didn't really think the day would ever come when he would be ABLE to leave home. I watched him sit on the couch in pain for quite a few years. And with the time passing, and the Crohn's going into remission, and with his life ahead of him, and his future so bright, I'm just THRILLED that he's leaving.

I think our relationship has always been close. Sometimes it's been too close, because he was very dependent on me when he was sick. And I know that his leaving won't hurt that relationship. He'll have a chance to miss me, and appreciate the good things about me, and I'll miss him. If he stuck around, though, we would be rubbing on each other's nerves. It's been happening a lot lately. And if he was home he'd be going out, and doing homework, and texting his friends, and on his computer. He wouldn't be spending his time with us anyway.

And besides. He'll be home for the weekend in three weeks. Sheesh. I'll barely have time to miss him.