Wake me up when September ends......

The University of Central Florida



The University of Chicago

"Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
wake me up when september ends
like my father's come to pass
twenty years has gone so fast
wake me up when september ends"

Those lyrics by Green Day express my feelings very well.

As this Summer moves to Autumn I feel that same transition symbolically happening in me. As a father I feel that I've "come to pass."

Last weekend our son, Jonathan, moved into his college dorm and made a quantum leap into the journey of life. Although our daughter, Jessica, began the journey over two years ago, it didn't hit me quite as hard then, because, for one thing, she went to Ohio University, and although it was over two hours away, it was still fairly close, we also still had Jonathan at home.

But this Summer ended with Jessica moving to Florida to attend the University of Central Florida and Jonathan moving to Chicago to attend the University of Chicago. The combination of these events, together with the emotional impact of seeing thousands of people lose all that they owned, and some their entire families, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, has brought me face to face with the brevity, fragility and preciousness of life.

If it hurts this much to send my children off to school and life - I am speechless at how much more it must hurt to lose them or send them to war!!