An Ode to my Daughter Who is Leaving for College

E. Basilion
2 min readJan 6, 2021

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My daughter is leaving for college next week. She is flying the coop. And I have been having a lot of flashbacks back to the time when she was still a baby in my arms.

One of the things I used to do for hours and hours everyday with my daughter is read. We read a lot of books by Margaret Wise Brown. Today I am starting to believe that Margaret Wise Brown was some kind of oracle.

Here are three of our favorites books:

1. The Runaway Bunny

Once there was a little bunny who wanted to run away. So he said to his mother, “I am running away.”

“If you run away,” said his mother, “I will run after you.

For you are my little bunny.”

This is how I imagine I will feel when I drop her off at college.

2. Goodnight Moon

Goodnight comb

And goodnight brush

Goodnight nobody

Goodnight mush

This is how I imagine it will be for my daughter going to sleep in her dorm room at night.

3. Mister Dog

“Who are you and who do you belong to?” asked the little boy.

“I am Crispin’s Crispian and I belong to myself,” said Crispian. “Who and what are you?”

“I am a boy,” said the boy, “and I belong to myself.”

“I am so glad,” said Crispin’s Crispian. “Come and live with me.”

This is the kind of person I pray for my daughter to become at college. And it is also the kind of man I hope she meets someday.

(Full disclosure: When I read these books to my daughter, I would translate them into Greek. I was obsessed with her being bilingual at the time.)

Thank you, Margaret Wise Brown.

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E. Basilion
E. Basilion

Written by E. Basilion

I say the quiet thing aloud.

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