When Uncle Sam calls

This time of year can be hard for me. I see so many parents freaking out because they are sending their babies off to college. I try to be compassionate and understand, I realize that it’s a very big deal for them but they just can’t know. They can’t know that while they fuss about how far the college they carefully helped choose is from home I don’t get a say in where my boy is at any given moment, ever. While they complain about the cafeteria meal plans, my son often eats rations. While they fret about who the new roommate will be mine has had 4000 roommates (and shower mates) and I just pray they will have his back if that time comes. But the very hardest thing to understand is that for months and months and months at a time my child is completely 100% not accessible to me, no phone calls, no emails, no text messages. They could never understand the incredible importance of the Facebook green dot. No, he does not get too busy with classes, friends, studying, partying to bother with his mom. He doesn’t only call for money. He calls when he can to let me know he is still ok. He is busy serving our country. I wake up Christmas morning with one missing, the same for my birthday and his and every other precious life event until the moment he is granted leave. And then only if the last minute airfare home from wherever in the world he has been sent is even remotely affordable. My sailor hasn’t been home in well over a year, a whole year and counting. Your college student will be dumping laundry on you within weeks of setting off on their adventure. So know that while I can totally understand the empty bedroom, the empty chair at the dinner table, the extra quiet, the void that you are feeling and I understand that it’s all relative and your heart is aching too please understand if I don’t completely understand.