<p>Memories…memories…fun times…we all laugh now. Back then, not so much. I was FREAKED. TOTALLY 
:(( </p>
<p>We are not New Yorkers or Northeastern people. I/we had lived in many places and in big cities. But when it comes to my kid? NOPE. Dropping her off and saying goodbye and seeing her run across Eddies…and then driving home…that long drive…hours and hours…feeling like my arm had been cut off and my stomach disgorged. Then we got frequent updates and saw some facebook postings…some of them funny and some of them OMG…on the Metro North at night with “new friends” some of them males. OMG! LOL. This from the kid who said, “no boyfriends for six months…I’m going to ward them off like vampires!” LOL.</p>
<p>Then the D train stories. Then …I had to just shut it off and let it ride. Gradually my fears subsided and we learned it was going to be okay and reminded ourselves that Fordham has more females than males on campus and that wouldnt be the case if it was a horribly unsafe school. Its not. </p>
<p>There will be drama. There will be discoveries. There will be all sorts of stuff for “kids”. But its a process…a growing up process. By Thanksgiving the stress was at fever pitch, the drama reaching crescendo and the angst about cafeteria food and exams and papers…but then they won the Queens Disputatio competition and it was seemingly going well. </p>
<p>You have to go through it to get through it, so to speak. Just know its coming and learn to roll with it. Lots of tears. Lots of fears. Lots of worries. Lots of doubts. By January we were in full fledged trouble: didnt get a 4.0, roomie issues, the flu set in…and serious health issues (not drinking…though others were doing plenty of that!) and we had to go up there twice…almost pulled her. Had “the talk” in the hotel…that moment when its fight or flight. A fabulous meal in the hotel restaurant midtown manhattan joined by the new bff and a new male interest (who is now her fiance! lol) and we reached a decision to stay and fight: first for health, then for a plan to get on track at school. That medieval french class put her over the top on anxiety…a wicked hard course. We got all her professors (except one) to work with her and by March the weather was better, the gray clouds gone, she had restored faith in herself and gotten out of a hole…it ended up fine. Not perfect, but fine…good enough (above 3.5) for honors recommendations in departments…which yielded a good class rank (in June), and some emails from professors asking her to major in THEIR departments. Its nice to be wanted. Its nice to be noticed. Its nice to be told you are special. Also, when we moved out of Queens in May, there were lots and lots of tears. Mostly relief and happy tears…that they had survived…they knew they werent going to flunk out, and they could handle it. </p>
<p>Bottom line is freshmen year is full of all sorts of excitement and unexpected twists and turns and ups and downs. Know it. Embrace it. </p>
<p>Fordham is such a wonderful experience and the four years really do go by too quickly. I wish all of you the very very best. </p>