What a wonderful four weeks we had with Huck, known as Will to his professors and friends in Pittsburgh. He struck a very nice balance of spending quality time with his lonely old parents and his high school friends. Thanks to two full snow days, including the day before he left, we got some cozy bonus hours. (And he got out of town just in time to miss the current zero temps and snow.) There were card games and board games and puzzles, neighborhood walks, trips to Target, and so many fireside conversations. He took lots of candle lit bubble baths, ate at his favorite restaurants, sang with his favorite choir, and rang in the New Year with so many favorite grown-ups. And now he is back at CMU – though we did forget to buy him snow boots – ready for a packed second semester that includes more math, computer science, writing, biology, and choir.

One of the biggest changes for Huck during his first college semester is that he finally (barely) let go of his forever 4.0, thanks to the wisdom of his favorite professor who urges freshmen to find a school/life balance. He took many difficult math classes – officially feeling happily challenged in his favorite subject – and made the Mellon College of Science Dean’s List with Honors. He was given permission to“overload” in the spring semester with an extra class, including honors calculus, proving yet again that the stuff of my nightmares is his dream come true. And finally, he and his college bestie are doing props together for the first Scotch ‘n Soda play of the semester, something he is weirdly excited about. (I predict it has to do with spreadsheets.)

Fayetteville friends whose son went to college in NYC warned us that every visit home ends with another grief session, though slightly less each time. As he walked away from us into the airport Saturday morning with his pink floral suitcase and flowing mane of hair, I felt that familiar heart-clench as my dang brain played a precious medley of the last month. But now we know how it feels to live without him, knowing he’ll be back, loving all the stories from his new life, mentally preparing that next care package.

When Huck finally got back to Pittsburgh he texted a picture of his 9:30pm mozzarella sticks dinner at a campus food joint. I asked if it was fun to be back and he responded “yessss. everything is exactly as i left it.”

As it should be.