Ellen Goodman's article

[lbridge]

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<p>When a Daughter Goes Off to College</p>

<p>Ellen Goodman</p>

<p>It is a late summer day when we migrate south. The two of us, mother
and daughter, join that long caravan of families in borrowed station
wagons and rented vans, moving the contents of a million bedrooms to
a million dorm rooms.</p>

<p>The cars in our 60-mile-an-hour lane are packed to the hilt with
student “basics.” Stereos and stuffed animals pop up into my
rear-view mirror in Connecticut. Guitars and quilts are strapped
onto rooftop boxes in New York…</p>

<p>As a driver on this journey, I have the sudden impression that we
are part of a gigantic national swap-fest. Western parents
delivering their children East to school. Eastern parents delivering
their children West…</p>

<p>The symbolism of our trek doesn’t escape either of us. Loading the
car, driving it and finally unloading its contents into her new
room, we are both companions and accomplices to her leave-taking
from home. We are in this separation together…</p>

<p>But today it is only my traveling companion who makes me feel at
ease with this journey. “This is exactly what I want to be doing
now,” she says excitedly as we graze through the local salad bar for
our last lunch. Hours later, on a street corner in a strange city, I
hug this tall young woman and tell her, “Go fly.” It is time.</p>

<p>Ellen Goodman is a Boston Globe columnist.
The Boston Globe, 9-16-86</p>

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[jmmom]

<p>Thank you, lbridge. I hadn’t seen it and I loved it.</p>

[bing121086]

<p>Yes, that was wonderfully written. I love the “antennae of motherhood” part; what a great metaphor.</p>

[massmom]

<p>Found this column in my mother’s things last winter when we were cleaning out her house after she passed away. We are from the Boston area and she was a huge fan of Ellen Goodman. Her daughter is the same age as my younger brother, so there were lots of parallel experiences reflected in her columns. </p>

<p>Driving my oldest out last weekend (my younger S and I were in the car, my H and other S in the rental truck, I noticed all of the cars and trucks stuffed full of stuff. Lots of MA, NY, and CT plates, going both ways on the PA turnpike.</p>