The oldest is leaving the nest . . .

Well not actually "my" nest but, as August is winding down, my partner's oldest daughter is getting ready to leave her mom's home and head off to the hallowed halls of higher learning. She was unable to obtain full-time summer employment this year so I've been providing her with a bit of work here and there - partly to help me out with my massive, mind-numbing workload and partly to provide her with something to do where she feels "needed" and with a bit of income.

Today, while we were out running errands (her "work time" with me sometimes is more "paid companion" rather than "part-time staff") including my finally picking up a copy of "Alice's Adventures In Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass", taking Becca into the local Petsmart for a roam through the store and to buy dog cookies, and a lovely dog walk with Tazio and Becca at the park, she mentioned she's going shopping tomorrow to pick up a few items that she will need for living in residence and for school. It brought me back to when, in 1976, I went through the same, somewhat exciting, experience of pulling together the items I would need to live away from home while at university. I can still remember how exciting it felt to be on the threshold of starting my "adult" life.

I'm supplying her with my trusty laptop that I purchased just over two years ago and which became the workhorse for my consulting business. This summer I ordered a new laptop to replace the original that I knew I'd be giving to Samantha. This weekend will see my computer guy and I getting all the programs and data transferred from the old laptop to the new laptop, reformatting the drive on the old laptop, and readying it with MS Office, etc for her use at university.

I keep thinking of different little tidbits of advice, information, etc that I can pass onto her that hopefully will help her with her transition from high school student to university student. And I'm sure her mom is doing the same thing.

She's a very intelligent, savvy girl but it's been quite interesting how much I find myself thinking of the challenges that await her and how I want to ease this transition for her.

And how old her heading off to university makes me feel!