When we go away to college, we necessarily become less attached to our families. Since we are away from home, we are not able to interact with our families in the same way we did in high school. In high school, we could ask our parents if we had questions, but at college, we no longer have that luxury. This lack of daily interaction forces us to become more detached from our families; however, we sometimes trade this attachment for attachment to more material ideas. At college, our focus often turns to our grades and our work. This attachment seems to be fairly material, as opposed to our less material interactions with our families. In my mind, this is not a good transition to make, because we trade the less material for the more material. In my mind, it would be better if we could maintain the detachment we begin to develop without becoming more attached to the more material.
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I live 45 Minutes away from my college and I have had that problem as well! I think the best way to solve that would be to take a few minutes every day or every other day no matter how busy you are to just talk to at least one family member. In our parents’ perspective, they want to know how we’re doing- not necessarily grades-wise, but just how we are in general. I feel that maintaining the habit of calling home every so often would definitely ease their worries about you as well as keep you attached to your family.
This is an extremely thought-provoking point, Brittany.
Someone I respect once told me to be careful, lest my attempts at detachment degenerate into intense attachment to one material object. I’ve definitely made this mistake.
Someone else I respect once told me that detachment is attachment to something higher. I’ve found that this positive proscription is effective for avoiding the quandary you describe in your post.
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