The Drive Home After Drop-Off

The drive home from college drop-off might be the longest twenty minutes or three hours of your parenting life so far. Your car feels simultaneously too quiet and too full—empty of their voice but heavy with the weight of everything that just shifted. The radio songs sound different, the familiar route looks strange, and you might find yourself taking the long way home because arriving at an empty house feels too final.

This drive isn't just transportation; it's the bridge between who you were this morning (parent of a child living at home) and who you are now (parent of a young adult living their own life). The discomfort you're feeling isn't a sign that something's wrong—it's proof that something profound and necessary is happening.

**Try This:** Before you start the car, take one photo of something meaningful from the day—their dorm window, the campus sign, even just your hands on the steering wheel. Send one text to someone who gets it: your own parent, a friend who's been through this, or your partner riding silently beside you.

**Journal Prompt:** What did you notice about your child today that you want to remember? What do you want to tell them that you didn't get to say?

**Remember:** This drive home is the first of many journeys back to yourself.