My Daughter Just Started Freshman Year and Is Already Back Home

This is not how freshman year is supposed to be, I thought as my husband and I packed up our daughter’s belongings from her dorm room.

I choked back tears as I boxed up her barely used Keurig and like-new text books, her fluffy white comforter and coordinating desk lamp. These same items—so full of promise and possibility when we helped her unpack them three short weeks ago—were painful reminders now of how the best laid plans can change in the blink of an eye.

Two weeks into the school year...