College Should Be A Break

I am looking forward to the time my oldest leaves for college, not because I won't miss her like crazy, but because it will be so much better for she and Caroline to have more space from each other. Caroline is intensely jealous of Elizabeth's freedoms and friends, and I think high school will be easier for her without the comparison right there in front of her. We visited James Madison University this weekend, and Elizabeth just loved it. When we came home, Elizabeth was retelling the adventures she had hanging out with one of her good friends who is a freshman at JMU, I could tell that Caroline was really listening and wondering about what her own college experience would be like. She knows that we want her to stay here, live at home, and go to one of the four universities within a few miles of us. I just couldn't imagine her living far away and trying to manage her medications and the stress of college at the same time. That would be a recipe for disaster in my opinion. But we have five more years before she will be going to college, so we won't have to deal with that until Elizabeth is out of college! Holding Caroline back a year has certainly given her the advantage of being a little older when she graduates from high school, at age 19 instead of 17 like her older sister.