One moment, entering freshmen are safe and snug at home, basking in their last summer of innocence. The next, they are in over their heads, spluttering and spitting in choppy seas, struggling toward shore through breakers and boxes. A few freshmen do wash out, but most find both their footing and a whole new world in reasonably short order. It helps that they also find thousands of other people sharing their new academic island. Even if your freshman hits double zero in the game of roommate roulette, no one really has to befriend a volleyball just for companionship on campus, as Hanks did on his island.
College freshmen are easy to worry about.
But let's spare at least a little parental concern for kids who have demons of their own to wrestle that are less obvious but just as scary. Those kids have a name, too. We call them seniors. High school seniors appear to be sitting on top of their world, and most of them thoroughly enjoy the ride. But seniors figure out by spring of their senior year that things will change at graduation.