A Son Sails Off to College

Articles from Boomer Magazine in Richmond, VA

A Son Sails Off to College

Written by Lori Ross

Monday, 16 August 2010 12:14

In a woman's life, certain events mark a special passage that you think about for the rest of your life. The big days are the births and weddings of your children — and another one really is when your child goes to college. Especially when the last child goes.

Saturday was that day in my life. That day Jared took residence at Christopher Newport University (CNU) in Newport News. It was about as perfect a day as it could be.

Jared and I had our own goodbye and conversation, which was nice, but then it was time to pack the bags in the car and go.

After we left the dorm, we drove to Fredericksburg for an outdoor Styx concert where we joined other family members for a beautiful night. It was an awesome, fun concert and a beautiful evening.

Before I reveal the next part of the story, it's important to know a few things about CNU:

* The logo for the school is a sailboat, (being near the beach and named after Christopher Newport).
* The students there are called Captains.
* Everything there is themed around sailing and captains.

I can sing along to several of Styx songs even though beforehand I couldn't probably name one hit without help. So the big song of their evening was "Come Sail Away." Bittersweet as it is for Mom, Hollywood couldn't have given me a better score to remind me it's Jared's turn now to be independent. As Styx sang, I thought of Jared:

I'm sailing away
Set an open course for the virgin sea,
'Cause I've got to be free
Free to face the life that's in front of me,
On board, I'm the captain, so climb aboard,
We'll search for tomorrow on every shore,
And I'll try, Oh Lord I'll Try, to carry on....

A gathering of angels appeared above my head
They sang to me this song of hope
And this is what they said,
Come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with me, lads.