One of the reasons we’re so scared when our children leave the nest is because we remember our own flight.

The pure joy of leaving the straps and bindings of our parents’ rules is still nestled deep in the happy place of our subconscious. We savor the memories of tossing out their warnings and racing into wildness – a place we weren’t allowed before.

Which brings me to my freshman year in college.

I hadn’t realized I’d been bound and gagged in a parental hold until, suddenly, miraculously, on a weekend morning in early September, I was set free.

It took me weeks to loosen up, but day after day I discovered a lightness of being that I’d never experienced during my first 18 years of life.       

And then, my first college party. Continue reading →