None of the following is your fault; it’s mine.

Intellectually, I understand that it is your time to go off to college, but emotionally my heart has slipped out of chronology and keeps going back to when you were two, then twelve, then an infant cradled in my arms, then in intramurals making a basket, then at the dining room table doing homework, then back in the stroller goo-gooing softly.

So, yeah, I am a mess.

And my biggest problem isn’t about you being ready (you are, as ready as any college student), but that I haven’t told you enough about the big bad world. So, as much as I think of him as a fool, I am going to be Polonius and give you parting advice.

Here we go.

First, your body is a wondrous machine that needs a few things to run well. If you don’t give a…