Often miss-attributed to either Horace Greeley, founder of the New York Tribune, or John B. L. Soule, an Indiana newspaper writer, this phrase kept echoing through my head as we drove to the airport. My anticipation of this day was not without some anxiety. How emotional would it be? The last thing I wanted was to have a total tear bath at the airport. I knew my emotions would be a mix of joy and sadness, but I was really feeling positive and happy. I was fine. Until we got to the airport and I saw Vicki and her family. Then I started to get a little teary-eyed.
I remember my boys’ first airplane ride alone in 2005. It was during the Florida years when trips to Orlando were routine. Now, they really were not that young—13 and just shy of 16, but I was still a nervous Mom, who had to see them all the way to the gate (with special permission) and repeatedly issue instructions to “call me the minute you land”. It was only a two-hour, non-stop flight and my Dad would be waiting for them, but it was a long two hours before the phone rang.
When Calvin flew to Seattle for his first internship, I was still quite the mother hen. Call me when you board the plane. Call me when you land in Detroit. Call me when you land in Seattle. Call me when you get to your apartment. And he did—all four times. The next spring when he went back for an interview for the second summer internship, I was more relaxed—call me when you get there. And the flight out for the second internship was much the same. Just call me when you get there.
But this trip to Seattle was on a one-way ticket. After some brief conversation between the families, the kids checked in and we headed for security. There was plenty of time so there was more chatting and then we had to give final hugs and goodbye kisses and that was hard. The kids wound their way through security while we jockeyed for the best vantage points to watch their bobbing heads take the twists and turns along the corral. Periodically we’d catch sight of each other, and then frenzied waving would ensue. They took their turn at the checkpoint, then gathered laptops back into bags, slipped shoes back onto feet, turned to wave at us moms who were by now standing on tiptoe, still waving, trying to catch every last glimpse before they disappeared around the bend.
Latest research indicates the quote “Go west, young man.” is most likely a paraphrase. The following quote was cited in a recent biography of Greeley: "If any young man is about to commence the world, we say to him, publicly and privately, Go to the West" (from the Aug. 25, 1838, issue of the newspaper New Yorker).
And so they headed west.
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