A friend of mine just posted something on social media about her son moving away for the summer.

The young man is 21 and Mom is feeling “sad” about her nest becoming empty.

Hmmm. I thought about that for a moment, feeling an initial twinge of guilt.

It has to do with our own sons’ departure from our nest. One of them left in the late summer of 1991 after graduating from high school. He went off to college, which was about a two-hour drive from our home in Beaumont.

The empty nest syndrome quite set in because we had another son still in high school.

He graduated the following spring and in late 1992, we packed him up and moved him all the way to Dallas, where he would attend college.

We dropped him off at the apartment he had rented. We said our goodbyes and he ran across the parking lot, into the darkened hallway … and he was gone.

My wife and I then drove back to Beaumont. It was the longest, quietest five-hour drive we’d ever taken together. We spoke maybe 10 or 12 words the whole time on the road.

Well, this has a happy ending.

We got over it. Our son called us as soon as he got his phone hooked up; cell phones didn’t yet exist. Our other son was doing well at the university he was attending.

It was some point quite soon after Son No. 2 got ensconced in Dallas that we realized: You know, this empty nest thing is pretty cool.

Therein might lie the brief pangs of guilt. Weren’t we supposed to be depressed over empty nest syndrome?

Naww! We were free to do what we wanted. Our sons behaved responsibly (most of the time) while they were away pursuing their studies.

They finished college. They earned their degrees. They both are successful in their chosen careers. One of them now has a family of his own — and we are the proud grandparents of the most gorgeous little girl who ever lived.

So, to my friend who’s now dreading having an empty nest for the first time in her adult life, I’ll just add this: You, too, are likely to learn that life does exist once the kid leaves the nest.

Take it from me … the empty nest syndrome is overrated.