Do They Ever Grow Up?

For those who don't know us personally, our son, Daniel, is brilliant. He will graduate High School in a couple of months near the top of his class, while having already completed over 30 hours of college courses. He was just accepted to the University of Illinois school of Engineering Physics, which is ranked number 3 in the world for Physics Engineering. On top of that, he has been named as a James Scholar in this school, which is a high honor society giving him many special privileges and options for his college. (Yes, I am bragging a bit here, but stay with me.)

I could go on and on, but I think you get the point... the boy is smart. But the idea of sending this kid off to college scares me to death! He is SO unprepared to deal with life on his own. He can't remember from one day to the next that he needs to carry his dirty clothes to the hamper or his dishes back to the kitchen. He is always running late, and if I was not running after him telling him he needs to get moving and practically shoving him out of the door, he'd be late for everything. Seriously... I'm worried!

Today he traveled to Quincy, Illinois with the school scholastic bowl team and we knew it was going to be late before they headed back. I asked him to call me when they left Quincy so we would know about when to expect him home. Not only did he not call, he did not turn his cell phone on so that we could call him. Finally at almost 11:00 tonight, he decides he might want to turn the phone on in case we called him. He was sitting at Taco Bell here in town with some friends.
Are you ready for the good part?
He has lost his car keys and can't drive home from the school. Now, wouldn't you think that if he lost his keys he might call us as soon as he realized they were gone? I asked him when he realized he'd lost them.
"In Quincy." Almost 2 hours ago, and the bone head does not think to call his parents so we could make arrangements to get keys to him. In fact, he still was not calling us, Libby called him.

Of course, you KNOW I was not happy to have to go back out at 11:00 to take him keys. But being the most excellent father that I am, I did, and barely growled at all. When he got home, I started asking him about where he had looked, and each place he told me, I looked behind him. Of course, I was just being dumb and wasting my time according to my genius son. I told him to dump his back pack in the floor. He was getting angry and said, "dad, I have looked there twice!" I told him that he could dump it or I could, but we were dumping the back pack. He grumbled as he began dumping everything out, then he opened the side pouch and said, "Oh my God, how'd I miss them?" as he pulled out his keys. I said, "the old man is not near as dumb as you think he is, is he?" Of course, he cannot leave it there, he says, "I looked in there twice. They were not there." I said, "Yeah son, it was those Gremlins again."

Someone, anyone... please tell me this boy is going to grow up and mature in dynamic fashion this summer!
I am afraid.