“College dropoff is one of the saddest good things a parent can ever do”

⌛ Today in existential dread: We’re almost 63.47% of our way through 2024
Issue #145: navigating anxiety, cat math, and what your Moleskine is thinking
By Harris Sockel

Every once in a while, I find a Medium story that makes me think about something familiar in a new way. Today, it’s essayist Jen Murphy Parker’s “The fun and games of college tours.”

The essay is timely, obviously: Over the next month, roughly 19 million 18-year-olds will start their first year of college. They’ll buy extra-long twin-bed sheets and medusa lamps. Their parents will spend anywhere between $30,000 to $100,000 to give them the once-in-a-lifetime experience of staying up until 1 a.m. obsessing over a final.

Before all that, they’ll wave goodbye to their parents. In 2016, Jenny Boylan described the weird mix of emotions this moment can trigger in a moving essay about sending her son to Kindergarten:

my wife and I… had two very different reactions as the school bus pulled away, the boy waving happily to us from the window. I had burst into tears, while Deedie just grinned in triumph. “But — we’re losing him to the world!” I cried, melodramatically. “I know,” she replied, with an air of immense satisfaction.

As you might’ve read in a recent issue of this newsletter, college isn’t as popular as it used to be. Since 2010, enrollment has been on a downturn as Gen Z questions the value of a four-year degree.

What those stats overlook, though, is the emotional impact of going to college — for both kids and parents. What I love about Parker’s essay is that it crystallizes those nervous, conflicted feelings on both sides. As she writes, “College dropoff is one of the saddest good things a parent can ever do.”

⚡ Lightning round: Great, recent Medium stories in 2 sentences or less

• John Kruse MD, PhD, offers a thorough breakdown of how anxiety functions and how to navigate it — including this fact: “Anxiety is often closely tied to a need for certainty.” Get comfortable with things being a little up in the air and you’ll (probably) feel calmer.
• Until 1969, no one knew how cats always manage to land on their feet… even when dropped from great heights! Turns out cats have an intuitive sense for how to conserve momentum during a fall, which was useful to NASA researchers figuring out how to help astronauts orient themselves in space.
• An essay that made me laugh at my computer yesterday, via The Belladonna Comedy: Maybe you’re having trouble writing because your thoughts aren’t chic enough for your sleek Moleskine notebook.

Your daily dose of practical wisdom: on influence

Quiz: Zoom In

Below is a highly zoomed-in version of an image related to one of the stories linked above. If you know what it is, email us: tips@medium.com. First to guess correctly wins a free Medium membership.

Congratulations to yesterday’s winner, Mike Logue, for correctly answering: “Centre Pompidou” (aka Musée Beaubourg), featured in Sophie Aguado’s guide to visiting Paris.

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Edited and produced by Scott Lamb & Carly Rose Gillis

Questions, feedback, or story suggestions? Email us: tips@medium.com