What Has Surprised Me the Most

I think what surprises me the most in the role of motherhood is the intensity of the desire to hold on tightly when we must let go.
Yesterday was college orientation and registration. Officially, the paperwork had been taken care of months ago. Officially, once the pomp and circumstance was done, so was parental control. Officially, he's making his own money and paving his own way. Officially, he's a mature adult.

Unofficially, I just don't get it. How does one give her heart so completely to someone and then just let it go? Maybe, we are only able to do this because there is hope that one day they will return, different and yet the same.