Fielder's Choice

They say life happens in stages. Pam and I are trying to tackle a new one.

Thursday of last week, we moved Erin, our youngest child, into her dorm room at the University of Southern Mississippi.

It's not the first time we've moved a child to Hattiesburg for college. We did it with Emma in August 2009 and Andy in August 2012. Those moves were difficult. This one was more difficult.

This is our baby, our preemie. She was born on New Year's morning, 2002, weighing just 2 pounds and 6 ounces. She's been a fighter since day one.

I call her both our surprise child and our late-in-life child.

I used to joke with Erin about how I would be almost 60 when she started college. I will turn 59 August 25.

I tackled the stairs of a dormitory with Emma's move to USM. I was 47 then.

This time, thank goodness, with all the stuff Erin took with her, this modern dorm had an elevator. I still can't believe we moved a small cabinet with a separate marble top and a pair of headboards. Dorm rooms have certainly improved and gotten larger over the years.

Erin went into the college decision process wide-eyed, looking at lots of different options. She did extremely well academically at the high school level and had lots of opportunities.

At first, she thought she might chart her own path, so to speak, and go somewhere different than her two older siblings.

But in the end, the positive influence of Emma and Andy plus the best scholarship offers won out. She's blessed to be a Luckyday Scholar at USM, where she is majoring in speech pathology.

Erin, like all high school seniors in the Classes of 2020, had a difficult end to her senior year. The COVID-19 pandemic meant no in-school classes or extracurricular activities after spring break in March.

Those high school grads, like all of us, were thinking surely the virus would be behind us come August, and college would be normal. Of course, that's not the case.

USM had various move-in times for students so large numbers were not entering the dorms at one time. And masks were required.

She will start classes next Monday, Aug. 17, and they will all be virtual, at first. USM is hoping to make the switch to at least some classroom settings after Labor Day.

Classes for the semester will end earlier than normal, prior to Thanksgiving, with virtual exams to follow the first few days of December.

Leaving Erin in Hattiesburg was tough, really tough.

Pam and I hugged her tightly and cried. We cried some on the long drive home, and we've cried more since we've been home.

It's the first time in 29-plus years that we have not had at least one child in the house with us. It's different, a whole lot different.

Sunday morning at church, I was asked by several, "How are you doing?"

My one word response was "adapting."

Most likely, the adapting will take weeks, maybe months.

But most of all, we're extremely proud of our baby. Erin is bright and determined. She will make her own mark at USM, no doubt.