I now have it on good authority ...

... that our youngest child is really, truly, graduating from college on May 13. I've seen his name on the "marching order," where he's 463rd in line -- so there! I'm quite thrilled for Nate. And now I feel as though I've done my duty as a parent: ensured that he successfully completed a college education and all of that. The rest is up to him now (like paying for a good chunk of it, ugh). He can go ahead and be a bum, even, if he wants. Not that he would or could. At least not before he pays off his student loans ("Ugh, excuse me, Mister Railroad Man? I can't ride off with you in that boxcar until, like, 10 years from now when my loans are paid off. Will you come back and collect me then and take me to that cardboard box down by the river?"). At least now he has a starting point: he can be an educated bum. And no one will ever be able to take that education away from him.