USGN Article - August 2005
Written by Terry Franklin

"Is He Ready To Leave?”

We’re about to drop our oldest boy off at college to begin his first year. And it’s killing me. Not just that I know we’ll miss him – it’s deeper than that. It’s that feeling you get when you’re headed off to catch a plane, and you just know you have forgotten something – only to realize that you left your tickets at the house. I’m asking myself: Is this kid ready to leave home? Will he do the right thing….without his parents looking over his shoulder? Beyond the material stuff, have we given him the things that really matter?

“Hey Tyler, I thought you had a Yahoo email account?” “Yeah, I did – but I got rid of it.” “How come?” “I started getting spammed with a lot of porno email. God told me to close the account.”

That boy may just make it. Truth be told: I wonder if I would have done the same thing when I was his age?

But does the boy have enough “worldly” sense – the day-to-day stuff: paying bills, knowing when to change the oil in the car, etc.?

“Dad, how do you write out the amount on the second line of the check?

God have mercy on that boy…. Of course, I was no Einstein when I was his age. When I dropped out of high school at 16 to sing lead in a southern gospel quartet – my Pillar Of Cloud being the diesel smoke that emanated from the rear of the Tribunes Quartet bus – I wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer. Not only did I not know how to fill out a check, but when the bank would send a monthly statement that included checks I had previously written, I would think, “Why are they sending me these – I already used them?” Month after month, I threw them out. Then, one day, I needed one of those checks and a light bulb lit up in my mind. A very dim light…but a light just the same.

So now, like a novice pilot, Tyler’s walking out of the hangar of our lives and onto the tarmac of life. (Come on…allow an emotional dad a little over-the-top prose) Gone are the days of indoor simulator flying and endless discussions about how to fly. It’s time for him to climb into the cockpit and fly on his own.

Something tells me he’ll be fine. I just hope he remembers his helmet…
 

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