There are times when I want to tell my students that if they want to learn anything at college, their first step should be defriending their parents. Write them a nice letter, on actual paper, once every week or so, but on the whole: let go. Stop living in their shadows, and start casting your own.

Read Jennfier Finney Boylan’s essay in the NYT about arriving at Wesleyan 36 years ago and what she sees on the Colby campus today.