Moving in on the First Day of College

I have two daughters. They are close in age so when they decided to go to college they picked one within twenty miles of our home. They were both in college together.

At that time we had a small Ford Escort. If you put the seat down you could pack the car with a lot of stuff. That little car ended up with two hundred fifty thousand miles on it when we junked it, due to all the trips to college those years.

On the first day of school we would pack up one daughters stuff into the car. We would load up the other car also, and then we would all depart for the college.

When we arrived there it was almost impossible to find a place to park. We would drive around looking for a place. Tempers got short, but eventually we would find a place. It never was very close to the building.

When we entered the dorm the first time we soon realized what a chore this would become. There was only one elevator and they were packed. So, we headed for the stairs. Men were hauling apartment sized refrigerators, microwaves, and television sets onto the elevator or up the stairs. Most of them looked like they were going to die from exhaustion. Their faces were red and they were puffing like large blow fish.

They were the fathers of these young adults. The halls were filled with people carrying boxes of all sizes. Everyone was trying not to run into someone with their head buried under bedding, pillows and clothes!

Hot and sweaty and getting more short tempered we climbed the stairs, over and over again carrying our daughters possessions into this foreign space. In and out we all went until the cars were emptied.

Then we got back on the road to go home and load up the cars again. If we were lucky and packed everything just right we could do it in two trips. Back we drove to the school, try to find a place to park and start all over again. Only this time we were close to exhaustion.

Once all the belongings were in the rooms, we helped unload what we could and then removed all the boxes back to the car.

We always took the girls to dinner before we made the drive back home. Then we would take them back and give them hugs before we left.

As we sat down to relax at home, with our feet hurting and our thoughts about them leaving for college fresh in our minds, we would hear the ringing of the phone. Invariably, one of them had forgotten something and had to have it or they would never survive the week!