Flying From the Nest

"I don't know if I can do this."
Marina sat in front of her computer with her two parents behind her. The screen was lit up to show her email. Her cursor hesitantly hovered over the refresh button.
"It's ok, honey." She felt her mother's hand stroke the back of her head. "At least one school accepted you."
"Besides," her father quipped up, trying to ease his daughter's ease without knowing that he was about to make it all the worse, "we all know you're going to end up at Union."
The early acceptance to Union College had come in the mail about a month earlier. Her parents were ecstatic. Union was a family tradition. And it was quite literally a hop, skip, and a jump down the street from where she currently lived. She would be living at home if she did attend. It would be the ultimate college experience within the comfort zone of the small New York town that she had grown up in.
The clock on her computer switched to 4:01pm. She hit refresh.
Marina glanced nervously at her parents as three emails appeared within her inbox. One from Southern New York University, one from Western New England University, and one from University of California, Los Angeles. Her parents knew of two of the schools she had applied for. The third came as a surprise.
She quickly clicked the first email before the third school could register within their minds.
ACCEPTED.
She felt a hand squeeze her shoulder from where her mother was standing. Neither of her parents said anything. Marina went to open the second email.
ACCEPTED.
Marina paused. Still nothing from her parents. She felt a pit form in her stomach, knowing that she had in some way disappointed them as she opened the third email.
ACCEPTED.
A small smile broke out on her lips before it melted away. She glanced over her shoulder at her parents.
Before this, her parents had thought that Marina had only applied to schools within three hours of home. They had no idea that their only daughter wanted to fly all the way across the country for the next four years.
"It's what I want."
Marina was sick of the New York area. She wanted new experiences. She wanted to explore. She wanted to discover who she was. But on her own.
Her mother nodded, still looking at the computer screen.
"We'll talk about it."
Marina didn't see what there was to talk about, but she nodded as well. She already knew where she was heading.
Marina was ready to fly away from the nest.