"Better get used to it''

I am about to be an empty nester.
My youngest son, who is 17 and a half, will go to UC Irvine this Sunday. He will be a freshman. And he will be on his own for the first time. Our oldest son is at UC Berkeley in his second year there.

Empty nester.
It sounds so cliche.
But I am afraid it is real.

"You better get used to it," said my wife the other day when we sat down for dinner, just the two of us. "I mean, get ready for it ..."

She was pointed, firm. Yet encouraging in her way. She knows I am not a "getting used to it" kind of person. Let me explain. I usually come up the cliff going like 90 mph then slam on the breaks and go: "Oh, is that a dropoff?" I knew that was coming but I did not prepare emotionally.

So, there I go. About ready to go off an emotional parent cliff. And I haven't hit the brakes yet.

OK, I am trying. I went out to dinner with my youngest son and had a talk about being on his own. About being smart, making good choices, the whole dad-son bonding thing. Well, not bonding, more like unbonding. More like leaving.

He was responsive. And he is a very mature 17 and a half year-old so that makes me feel a little better about him going off to college.

But I will miss him. And I will, I know, have to get used to it.