Christian has been home with us for the last several weeks, but now it looks like he fleeing the nest. Actually he has been paying his own way since he left for his PhD when he was 18, but now, it feels like he is gone for good. When he was in school, we could squint our eyes and semi-believe he was not gone even though he really was. Now though, he does not really need us hardly at all. We like to think our cheer leading is something (and it probably is), but he is truly on his own and making his own way now.
He is now a scientist in the very best meaning of that word at one of the most prestigious institutions of science in the world. It is, in our humble yet biased, opinion much more that just MIT. It is the part of MIT solely dedicated to research, unencumbered with training new young minds, in the very areas Christian studied. We feel somewhat melancholy, but also grateful and humbled that Christian has made it to this level.
He will leave next week and almost certainly never come back except for visits. That is a good thing, but we are in somewhat of a state of melancholy.