A few days ago our daughter celebrated her 24th birthday. She’s been living by herself in her college dorm suite for a month, an experience that has had its ups and downs. Thankfully a friend and former roommate from Dragonfly is moving in this weekend. But that day she was alone. None of us are big fans of video-conferencing but we stayed lightly linked all day, with a phone call and texts and photographs like the one above of the cake she baked for herself, lemon with lemon-basil icing. We forbore to ask if she was going to spend any time with anyone non-virtually. Anyway, what did it really matter? We were here, she was there. Last year, having just arrived in Oregon a few days earlier, our daughter was on her own for her birthday in a different way. Not alone alone as she was this year, but surrounded by people she didn’t know. The year before that she was angry with the world (and me) and moved out of our house and into her...
An ongoing series of essays about being the parent of a struggling young adult. My hope is to reach and support other parents undergoing similar experiences. Keep in mind that I am not a therapist and my only desire is to offer you support on your own journey as I make sense of mine.