PARENTS CRYING MORE THAN YOU ON DAY ONE.

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Remember that chaotic first day? The car packed to the brim, a lifetime of hopes and anxieties crammed alongside oversized duvets and your meticulously curated dorm decor. You, probably trying to project an air of nonchalant independence, secretly thrilled and terrified. And then there were your parents. Their faces a testament to a complex cocktail of pride, excitement, and a profound, heartbreaking realization that this was it. The launch.

You watched them go, perhaps with a quick, awkward hug or a last-minute lecture on calling home. Maybe you scoffed internally at their lingering tears, eager to claim your new, adult territory. But looking back, years removed from that initial scramble, it hits different, doesn't it? Their tears weren't just about missing you; they were about the closing of one chapter and the exhilarating, terrifying opening of another, for both of you. It was the silent acknowledgment of the intellectual crucible you were about to enter, the late-night debates that would shape your mind, the friendships that would define your formative years.

That first goodbye wasn't just a farewell; it was the true beginning of your extraordinary journey, far beyond the confines of your childhood home. And whether you were moving in or moving out for the last time, those moments of emotional gravity always lingered. They shaped who you became within these hallowed halls.