Sophomore year is going well for mine, too, in a way that is much more vibrant and active than her first year was. Her new housing situation absolutely lit a spark that has been there her whole life (she’s ALWAYS been an outdoors kid) and given her new confidence - she’s organizong one of their weekend trips, going to be the lead on ski trips in spring, ran a 5k (?!?), and yesterday one of her HS friends drove down from MHC, they took the train into Boston to meet a 3rd HS friend who is at Tufts, and wandered the MFA and Newbury St, and I think all 3 had the day they dreamed of when they all headed to schools in Massachusetts.
While she has been gone, one of our beloved cats died unexpectedly, and we just adopted a new buddy for his brother, we finished a major home project, and not being here for these big events has really made “she’s creating her own life” more real for all of us. She won’t be home until Thanksgiving as her house is doing a camping trip (which the school wasn’t going to permit because no one had wilderness first aid training - and then she shared her certification, another pro for the house and their 11th hour resident!) but my parents are passing through next week and will be seeing her and taking her to dinner. (She and my parents have far more patience for each other than either of them do for ME 
, so they are all looking forward to it.)