The hardest was when she left for college. We dropped her off a couple days early, so the campus was empty, and I have this very clear image of her walking alone across the quad①quad 英 [kw?d] 美 [kwɑd] n. 四方院子. I stared at my daughter's back while she literally walked into the next phase of her life. So many questions were running through my mind: "Did we prepare her enough? Is she happy? Will she feel comfortable enough to tell us if she's not?" Looking back,I wish I hadn’t fretted②fret 英 [fret] 美 [fr?t] vi. 煩惱；焦急；磨損so much over the small stuff. When she was young, we were worried so much about whether she started on the soccer team, or if she got chosen for the front row at the dance competition③competition 英 [k?mp?'t??(?)n] 美 [,kɑmp?'t???n]n. 競(jìng)爭(zhēng)；比賽，競(jìng)賽, or if she was playing flute④flute 英 [flu?t] 美 [flut] n. 長(zhǎng)笛a(bǔ)t the recital⑤recital 英 [r?'sa?t(?)l] 美 [r?'sa?tl]n. 朗誦，吟誦；獨(dú)奏會(huì). We worried so much about that stuff because we were looking for any sort of validation⑥validation 英 [,v?l?'de???n] 美 [,v?l?'de??n]n. 確認(rèn)；批準(zhǔn)；生效that we were doing a good job.And in our desperation to be good parents we became our children. I wish I knew how fast all that stuff would fade away⑦fade away 逐漸消失. And how little any of that would matter once she became an adult.

最難的是她離家去上大學(xué)的時(shí)候，我們提前幾天把她送去的，所以當(dāng)時(shí)校園里空無一人，我清楚地記得：她就那樣，獨(dú)自一人走過那片校園里的四方院。而我，望著女兒的背影，目送她走進(jìn)了她人生的下一個(gè)階段。好多問題，在我腦子里翻滾：“我們給她做足準(zhǔn)備了么？她快樂嗎？如果她不快樂，她會(huì)樂意告訴我們嗎？”回顧過去，我真希望我沒在那些小事上操那么多心。她小時(shí)候，我們是如此操心：她是否進(jìn)了足球隊(duì)；舞蹈比賽她是否被選在前排；或者音樂會(huì)上是否有她吹長(zhǎng)笛。我們很操心這些事，因?yàn)槲覀冊(cè)趯ふ胰魏我环N證明，證明我們做得還不錯(cuò)。我們拼命想成為好父母，我們仿佛成了我們的孩子。我希望過去我知道這些事情會(huì)有多快消退，而一旦她長(zhǎng)大成人，它們又是多么微不足道。