September 24, 2026

by Dr. Plastic Picker

It is almost a month since we dropped our youngest off at Harvard for First-Year move in. So much has happened in a month. I had started this blogpost to update the readership but it was there half started, because I wasn’t really ready to share or talk about things. I don’t ever think as a parent one gets over your child growing up, and moving into college and their adult lives. High school friends family had similar posts, children who we have known since 4 now settling into their dorm rooms. It was wonderful to see on facebook their smiling faces and excitement. We were also living in our own family and drama, as every family has different dynamics and birth orders and number of remaining children at home and different lives outside of our parenting. But it was good to see that the stage we were in, others were in as well.

Move-in a month ago went very well. There was the mad dash to her packed as she would be the first to actually move cross country via plane. I remember sitting at work about 3 weeks before she was flying out and thinking, “gosh, she needs to get things actually into her suitcases.” We had no plan, but did have a deadline with the day we were flying out together as a family of 3. She was very organized with her list, and the last few weeks at home with me were lovely – especially now that I am thinking back in the quiet of my empty house. She needed to pick up dorm essentials at Target. She needed a better bathroom caddy. Towels. Bathrobe. One container of her bathroom needs to get by before she figured out how to navigate Harvard square. We needed stationary, and she needed face-masks so that maybe she would have a face-mask party with the college girlfriends. Which dress should she bring? Which shoes did she need? How cold was it going to get, and did we need to buy the winter gear here? We ended up at REI and at Carlsbad outlets and bought some outerwear and fleeces that would get her through at least the beginning of the fall. It was this lovely time and rushing home from work, because she needed to be driven somewhere and wanted to see her childhood spots one last time.

The actual Harvard move-in was lovely. Everything happened honestly seamlessly. The timing for each uber ride, T ride, dorm drop off and coffee-meet up with our newly transplanted child was perfect. Mr. Plastic Picker and I were amazed and nostalgic and excited for her. We helped her move into her actual room, and didn’t over buy. We met her roommates and saw the environment that she would be navigating for the next four years. We walked down streets and neighborhoods that we knew so well as students, but now really belonged to her. Her Harvard experience has been so vastly different than ours, but it’s comforting knowing the names of the buildings and the streets and having some basis of knowing where she is.

We saw students from San Diego from rival high schools, and had impressions and thoughts – that likely are not true at all anymore. And those students were characters in the first few weeks, and they’ve faded as new friends and roommates and classes and activities have crowded her days. We got to live with her fully for the three days we were together, moving her in and making sure she was settled. After much back and forth with my own sister, we had purchased for her super fancy (for us) luggage from AWAY as her college luggage set. I had never bought fancy luggage like that for myself, but for her – we wanted her to have something nice. And we made the Harvard instagram account with our luggage that had 3.5 million followers! That was an entire adventure in itself.

And since move-in, we’ve had 30 days of text messages and facetimes and conversations and updates. Harvard Move-In day was beautiful. She joined the Harvard class of 2030.

So somewhere in that crowd is our daughter, who joined the class of 2030. She’s an adult now and settling in, and living her life. I want to give her privacy and she’s been so giving to allow me to share some of her childhood with my patient sand parasocial friends. But it’s time for me to let that part go. It’s been so beautiful sharing these stories with the blog readership and with so many of my real friends. Thank you for cheering us on, and we’ll continue to do the same for you and mostly for our earth! There is still a lot of climate work to do!