Many things change as you get older. Responsibilities expand. Joints ache. One thing stays exactly the same: Hard times linger longer; good times go by in a flash.

My daughter came home from college for Thanksgiving. She took the train to New York from Virginia, riding in on the Wednesday local and out on the Sunday express. America is a big country. The distances are Homeric—350 miles from her dormitory to our house. Often it feels like she lives in a different world. Sometimes I find it hard to accept. She’s 19, but she’s still my baby.