For me, the hard part is coming to terms with the fact that ultimately, I face the world alone. Yes there will be people who lift and support me along the way. But I've learned that I walk my own path and nobody will be there for every step, but me.

Coming home to an empty house or a house full of roommates (strangers) instead of a parent who works to make life safe and comfortable for me- someone who will hold me when I cry and put up with me when I want to be juvenile, and read me bedtime stories, and quiet my fears in the night when I've had a nightmare. Someone who will set my boundaries FOR me, to make sure I"m always safe. Those are hard decisions to make!! Someone to go to work and pay the bills and worry about all that, while I focus on learning about this brand new world around me. Those are the things that are hard to let go of. Some of them, I've never really had.