Mood:
quizzicalTopic: La vie
This is the first week of classes, kicking off the fall semester at LSU. Every year when this sweet day rolls around, I get a little nostalgic. I remember packing for school, saying goodbye to my cat and partner in crime, Lucky, and hitting the road with a near 15-hour drive ahead of me.
The entire summer before I left Indiana, it was in the back of my mind—sure, I was going to miss my friends, my family, my own bedroom...but I knew a slew of interesting adventures awaiting me in swamp country. What an understatement.
But when moving day finally rolled around, I had a bad attitude. I didn't want to leave. The original plan was for my mom and I to make the drive to LSU, and she would help me move into the dorm. But I wasn't ready to say goodbye. So my best friend Angela and her mom agreed to join us on the trip.
All was right in the world.
The day we moved into my dorm, a Saturday, it was hot as hell. Hauling Rubbermaid bins full of extra-long sheets and school supplies wasn't really my cup of tea, but it had to be done. Since I had arrived a week before classes started, in order to rush for a sorority, my roommate hadn't arrived yet. So Angela spent the night on my mystery roommate's bed—that was my first night in the dorm.
The next day was a casual goodbye; my mom didn't want to make it a big ordeal. Which was probably the best decision. After all, it wasn't goodbye forever. Like most families, the bond with my parents grew once I got out of the house and we weren't getting on each other's nerves.
So on the Thursday before every fall semester begins, I see the parents rolling in, looking for the correct dorm, their mini-vans packed to the gills with shower caddies and computer accessories, all neatly labeled.
As I was catching up on The New York Times this week, I came across an article that touched on this very subject of parents letting go, "Students, Welcome to College; Parents, Go Home."
The article says colleges such as Morehouse College, University of Minnesota, and Grinnell College have created a formal "Parting Ceremony" that forces parents to get out and let their college kids be.
Wow.
These formal goodbyes come in many different forms, one in particular made me laugh—the students walk through the gates of campus, while the parents watch before the gates swing shut leaving them outside of campus. Others involve a ceremony with students on one side of the room and parents on the other.
Seems a little harsh, but according to the article, parents sticking around campus has become a recent problem (some even attending the first day of class with their son or daughter) due to the "Baby On Board" generation—or the parents who are living vicariously through their children.
At the company cookout last weekend, I remember one of my coworkers saying that when she left for college, her parents didn't even go with her to help her move in. I blame this on the fact that she probably went to college an hour away from home, but still.
Letting go of a son or daughter when they go to college, or even off to the military, is something I won't understand until it happens to me. But I hope when it does, I'm not left outside of the gate.
