by Khadija Husain

Created on: May 04, 2007   Last Updated: May 21, 2007

The first time I walked into my college dorm, I flung the window open and screamed "Freedom" loud enough to make Mel Gibson proud. My cell phone rang two minutes later. It was my mother, she asked me if everything was all right because she thought she heard me yelling as she and my father were driving away from campus. Due to my howl of independence, I spent my first half hour of liberty trying to convince my mom then my dad that I was going to be fine living away from home.

I was finally able to hang up the phone by telling my parents that I had to attend a mandatory meeting with my RA. Fifteen minutes later as I walked into my RA Becky's room, I heard her say, "No problem Nadia, you can call me anytime" before she hung up the phone. I greeted Becky and said, "Nadia, huh? That's my mom's name too!" Becky looked at me and started laughing, she said, "Yeah I know, that was your mom on the phone. She just wanted to introduce herself to me. Your mom's great, she told me any time I wanted to take some time off, she would love to fill in me for me as a RA!" Flashbacks of my parents introducing themselves to every single member of my Kindergarten class, scaring quite a few children who had been told not to talk to strangers, filled my head as I groaned in embarrassment.

After I left the RA's room, I stopped by the computer lab to check my email. My inbox had six email messages all from my parents. Here are just the subject headings:

-We Miss You!

-Re: We Miss You Even More!

-Re: Re: Still Missing Our Baby Girl!

-Re: Re: Re: Missing You and Wondering Where You Are?!

-Re: Re: Re: Re: Wondering Where You Are and Starting to Get Worried!

-Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Worried and Thinking of Getting in the Car to Find You!

I saw that last email heading and reached frantically for the cell phone to call my parents. I shrieked, "Mom have you both gone mad? I'm fine. I'm just in the computer lab, don't you dare even think about coming down here!" My mom cried out in relief as she said to my dad, "Honey turn off the car, she's okay, she was just in the computer lab."

I sank down in the chair and for the next two hours had the conversation that I probably should have had with my parents before I left home. I explained to my parents that they were going to have to realize that there were now going to be times that they were not going to be able to get a hold of me. But they should trust their parenting, and know that I was going to be just fine. I would call them when I got a chance to let them know how I was doing, and keep them updated in my life. My parents told me how hard it was after 18 years to just let go of me. I told them that just because I moved away to college does not mean that they had to let to go of me. I will always be their daughter, but they had to understand that I was no longer their child. They had to stop hovering and let me become an adult.

I said I love you and hung up the phone and sat there feeling very grown up and mature. The computer beeped and I looked up and I saw I had a new email, the subject heading said, Missing Our Adult Daughter. I sighed and banged my head on the keyboard, it was going to be a very very long school year.

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