Today my mom sent me a photo of our dog, Ella, dressed up in a hockey jersey.

This isn’t unusual. In fact, it happens about twice a week. The model is always the same but the costume changes. It’s just a part of being a mom who’s 3,000 miles away from her youngest child.

I’ve been thinking a lot about parenthood lately. My best friend is eight months pregnant and preparing for her transition from party girl to permanent mom. When my mom was my age she was a single mother caring for my brother. The thing about being a parent is it never stops. It doesn’t matter how old your child is, there will always be a need to worry. I think it gets worse when parents become empty nesters, like mine.

There is a peculiar juxtaposition between college kids and our parents. We think we are indestructible, and our parents think everything will go wrong. And in the perfect moment, we are both right.

Last summer I travelled with my parents. Despite being an airport savvy family, it was indescribable to watch my parent’s facial expressions when I wandered too far from our departure gate. My dad has a fear that the plane will leave without me.

I decidedly have never told them about the time at LAX when I held up the entire airplane as my name was called over the loudspeaker.

For some reason, I don’t think that’s an argument I’ll win.

As college students, I think we become a bit oblivious to the emotions that we leave our parents with when we chose to enter into that next phase of our lives. The main goal of parenting is the idea of raising a creature that has the ability to be independent and eventually repeat that same goal. The difficulty comes into play during the transition from being capable of being self sufficient, to actually achieving it.

The trouble with raising an independent child, is the second they realize it, they will run with it. I remember telling my parents I wanted to move to Santa Barbara.

At first, the conversations were about logistics and planning. Eventually it turned into my mom being devastated and thinking I didn’t want to be around her. Casual conversations and even jokes at my expense would turn from laughter into sudden sobbing.

There is no worse feeling. How do you tell your parents that you are leaving because of them? How do you say you are leaving because they raised you to do that?

When you live far from home, parents only tend to hear about things that go wrong. What they miss out on, is all of the sound decisions their children make without even realizing, from taking a cab instead of drinking and driving to paying a bill on time.

So, from a distance my mom continues to worry. She keeps close tabs on me on Facebook. She worries about how I cross the road. She worries about how I eat. She worries that I won’t come home.

But that’s the thing about independence, once you have it; you want to be around the people who gave it to you.