On the way back to our minivan, after finishing the move into my dorm room freshman year, my father slowed his pace so a little distance could build between us and the rest of the family. I knew what was coming — some version of the talk that parents give their teenagers in moments like this, when they go off to school, the military or a new life elsewhere. I was prepared to hear pieces of advice about the first year of college, from father to son. But I learned with time that they were deeper lessons for life, succinct and plainspoken, from one man to another.