It's Not Just Married Men That Are Clueless, Dads Are As Well

Son 1.0 is actually child 2.0; but, because they sprang from wives 1.0 and 2.0, both my children were raised as only children. And, because of that anomaly, I didn’t get to share in the “going off to college” experience with daughter 1.0 and for that I will be eternally sorry.  Consequently, I am, as son 1.0 says, “going way off the deep end” in preparation for his departure to higher education and the unforgiving world of grown-upness.  (Yes, I know that’s not a word; but, it should be.)   

Son 1.0 is possessed of a freshly minted high school diploma and a freakishly high ACT score.  Likewise, he is soon to be possessed of a dorm refrigerator, micro-wave, homemade curtains, homemade heirloom quilt and a stereo with speakers substantially larger than the refrigerator.  More importantly, he is blessed with the hopes and dreams of his sister, four uncles, three aunts, five cousins, four grandparents and an extraordinarily overwrought set of parents. 
His 15 year old low mileage automobile has been checked, flushed, drained, re-shoed, and given the attention paid to the space shuttle prior to its next flight.  The class schedule is at hand, the books are ordered six weeks in advance and a meal plan purchased.  He has a GPS for the three hour trip he has already made 15 or more times, a fresh cell phone and multiple chargers.    Fresh clothes are on new hangars and new shoes are in new boxes in the floor of the closet that otherwise looks like the bottom of a gerbil cage. 
Despite all this effort, something is dramatically, desperately wrong.  We were there when he was born, there when he was baptized, there when he graduated from elementary, middle and high schools.  We were there on his first and last campouts and every single one in between. We were there when he became an Eagle Scout,  a Vigil member of the Order of the Arrow and the 2010 recipient of the National Order of the Arrow Founders Award and when he was elected to serve in both statewide and regional offices with scouting’s honor society, the afore mentioned Order of the Arrow. 
We were always there and now we will not be there.  Our son walks this road and all that follow without us.  Son 1.0 is a great kid, a great human being, and will be a great mechanical engineer someday.  He doesn’t need us to stand between him and the world like a giant shield.  He doesn’t mind, he is both ready for and excited about the challenge.  It is me and wife 2.0 that are devastated.  So, something is dramatically, desperately wrong.  Not only are married men clueless, apparently dads are as well.

Matthew, I love you.  I cherish you and I will miss you desperately.  I do already.

See you next time.