Wes: It is again the time of good-byes, as graduates pack up their cars or climb aboard planes and head off to somewhere else. That might be six blocks away to KU or Haskell, into the city to work, or a thousand miles cross country. For Kendra Schwartz it’s 420 miles south southeast, at Hendrix College in Conway, Ark.

Kendra is the 10th coauthor of Double Take, which only underscores this issue moving on. When Jenny and I first came up with the idea for this column, my daughter was seven. This year she is the same age of new coauthor, Kyra Haas, who begins writing next week.

On days like this, we ask ourselves the same old questions, as if they were fresh again and not clichés repeated by every generation at this same moment of transition: Where have the years gone? When did we get so old? Who will I be now that I am no longer the parent of a child? Can I learn to parent an adult? Have I been successful with this one?

Don’t worry. You won’t have to find the answers. They will find you.

Saying goodbye to Kendra feels like déjà vu. I even went back to her sister, Samantha’s closing column, to try and steal from myself. But when I opened for Kendra last August, I promised never to turn her into that infamous “little Sam” that her sister had written about so eloquently when Kendra was still in middle school — the girl teachers always compared to Samantha.

Kendra has proven to be exactly who we thought she’d be. Herself. And she deserves her own goodbye.

So here is my fondest memory of Kendra. Most girls love to talk about sex these days. But Kendra did it differently and more courageously — with her mom in the room at KCUR FM with thousands of people listening in. That show gave me the idea for a book that Katie Guyot and I are outlining right now–Consent-Based Sex Education. It’s designed to modernize parents’ understanding of sex as we’ve tried to do here over the years. I have much to thank Kendra for, but that book may be her most enduring inspiration. Hopefully, she’ll write us an essay or two.

Kendra: Yes, from the moment I saw my byline in the LJ World, I worried that my writing as a columnist beside Dr. Wes would inevitably be compared to Samantha’s. At the beginning of my senior year and my time writing the column, I felt like I was in her shadow.

Ever since I could toddle, I wanted to be just like Sam. And with a senior year spent running the LHS newspaper as co-editor-in-chief, obsessive-compulsively leading Showtime groups, and writing for Double Take, I did just that.

And while I still believe there is no one who can craft a metaphor more beautiful than my big sis can, I have immensely enjoyed coming into my own literary voice while writing this column. Dr. Wes and my family have helped me realize how different Sam and I are.

As cheesy as it may sound, I feel as though I’ve grown up with Double Take and the families who read it. When I began reading the column, I was just beginning my teen years while watching Sam give out advice. Through Ben, Miranda, and Katie’s columns, I learned how to receive advice, which is often the toughest part. And by my senior year, I had the task of dishing out some of my own.

Double Take has been with me through tough breakups, lost friendships, and most recently, a move to Arkansas. I know that as I finagle my way through college, I will continue to grow as I read Kyra’s advice and the advice of whoever follows her.

It has been a pleasure working with Dr. Wes, and I appreciate greatly what he has done to aid me in my writing and advising.

Right before I moved, our realtor told me that with this column I had left my mark in Lawrence. Whether or not that’s true, I know Lawrence and everyone I had the pleasure of communicating with through Double Take will always have a place in my heart.

Dorothy was right: There’s no place like home.

Wes Crenshaw, Ph.D., ABPP, is author of “I Always Want to Be Where I’m Not: Successful Living with ADD & ADHD.” Learn about his practice Family Psychological Services at dr-wes.com. Kendra Schwartz is a Lawrence High School senior. Send your confidential 200-word question on adolescence and parenting to ask@dr-wes.com. Double Take opinions and advice are not a substitute for psychological services.