Distant Memories

Isn't it weird how something you haven't thought about in years or may have never remembered just suddenly gets triggered in your mind?

I was watching a movie a week or so ago and in the final scene these parents are dropping off their daughter at college. They visit her dorm room and kind of decide where things should go. Then they say their final goodbyes and they get in their car and drive away.

This suddenly brought back to mind when my mom drove me to college and we unloaded the car and took it up to my new room. I was the first to arrive and so got to choose what bed I wanted. I think my mom hung around much longer than she needed to, but I know she and I were delaying the inevitable goodbye to my childhood, my dependence on her, and to each other.

My mom and I have always been very close. We laugh together, have great talks and even cuddle once in a while. In my later teenage years I started to hold hands with her when we would cuddle and though partly I did it because it drove my brother crazy; I also loved that we were that comfortable with each other. She's just one of my favorite people.

So as we walked from my dorm building to the parking lot I think we were kind of silent trying to hold back the tears that I knew I would totally break once it came time to say goodbye. And I was right. As we hugged I just broke down and mom did the same. I at least had someone to comfort me. I had met the mom of my suitemates and when I went back to my room and she saw that I was crying she pulled me into a hug. The movie I saw shows the parents driving off and still upset. I wonder how long my mom cried to herself on the three hour drive home.

Even now, I still get a little misty eyed when I have gone home to visit and it's time for me to leave again. I've caught my mom being the same way. We're just a bunch of cry babies, I guess. (: