John’s posterous

This is a point that I don't often hear made when people talk about failure; the moral behind a failure-related story is usually about preventing it, or dealing with the aftermath, but not about the fact that sometimes things go bad despite your best efforts, and all the careful risk management and contingency planning won't keep you from going down in flames. This is important, because it forces every person to establish a risk threshold that they are willing to accept in every one of their life efforts. 

Sometimes things happen. And when they do, you really find out who you are.

1. Remind yourself that this is a necessary next step in growing up.

2. Remind yourself to not make them feel responsible for you crying so much.

3. Remind yourself to tell them you love them in the way they understand.

4. Remind yourself that you have been giving advice for the past 18 years and it is too late to cram.

5. Remind yourself that they are about to know everything and you will know nothing, and that the way to survive that is not to argue facts but to love the heart.

6. Remind yourself that life as you know it is ending but life as you don’t know it yet is just beginning–as has happened every day of your life.

7. Remind yourself to drive away.

8. Remind yourself to breathe.

—

and here’s what her mom wrote about goodbyes.

this is a good article for all parents sending their children off to college. you can find it here:http://levite.wordpress.com/2009/08/21/8-ways-to-prepare-yourself-to-say-goodbye-to-your-first-time-college-kid/