<p>Hoping everyone in the Boston area has a great day and can get back to some normalcy. What a crazy week!</p>
<p>S is home for the weekend. Really has nothing to do as far a school goes. All projects are done, only has to attend one class on Monday. Tuesday is “reading day”-a day for students to have no classes and can devote the whole day to studying before finals begin on Wednesday. S has 2 finals on Friday and one the next Wednesday (the 30th) and he will be DONE! In 10 days he will have completed his freshman year. I will anxiously await for the final grades to come in. I do think they will be a bit better than the first semester. </p>
<p>There were a lot of ups and downs for him this year, but he has learned a lot. About himself, other people, how the world works, etc… That’s what its all about. Not to mention learning his actual course work. Makes my head hurt just thinking about all of the knowledge crammed into his brain!</p>
<p>Yes, it’s been quite a week in Boston. My son was at the marathon near the end but left 1/2 before it ended. He took a test in the building next to where the MIT officer was killed but finished two hours before that. He was shaken but his friends at MIT and his faith in God help him tremendously. It’s hard being 3000 miles away but I’m so thankful for facebook, email, phone, etc.</p>
<p>BarnardMom, I’m very glad to hear of the progress for your daughter. She is such a brave young lady.</p>
<p>College-query, thank-you for sharing that story. I’m sure it will encourage others to follow up if they haven’t heard anything. I’m going to tell that to my friend whose son is still looking for an internship.</p>
<p>Thank you, College-query. I think he found the internships himself online. To complicate things he’s also applied for a ten-day study abroad in Japan that will be fully funded by the Japanese Government if he’s selected as one of the 23 students to go from his university. He hears back about this May 1. I am not sure if the intership applications/advertisements included a time frame for a reply. The Japan trip is a last-minute opportunity that came up and he was worried about the impact on potential internships, but I advised him not to close off any possibilities until something is a sure thing. Better a bird in the hand, etc.</p>
<p>My D did a paid internship at NASA last summer, and they were absolutely inflexible regarding time off. Their attitude was that the internship was only 8 weeks long (on a 9/40 schedule, so a total of 72 days) and that she shouldn’t miss any of them. </p>
<p>She had to give up an opportunity to up play with her orchestra at Disney Hall in LA because she couldn’t miss three half-days of her internship for rehearsals. She also had to forgo a national competition in her other EC, because it would’ve required missing 1~2 days in the 4th week of her internship. She really had to confront the fact that life is full of trade-offs!</p>
<p>I wouldn’t expect a paid internship to have any flexibility whatsoever for family vacation time, at least not if it’s with a government lab or a big bureaucratic company. A smaller organization might leave more discretion up to the individual supervisor, so you might find more flexibility there.</p>
<p>Thanks for the information, Mihcal1. I guess he’ll just have to make some tough choices if he does get more than one opportunity. This is my only child so I haven’t been through any of this yet. </p>
<p>BarnardMom, glad your daughter is recovering well (been catching up with past posts). I also feel that “no news is good news” when it comes to hearing from my son. Thank goodness for Facebook- when I see his green light on there I know he’s still alive!</p>
<p>I miscalculated in what I wrote before:
My D’s internship was 8 weeks x 9/40 schedule, so only 36 days total. So it makes sense that they wouldn’t want her to miss any days.</p>
<p>As mihcal1 wrote, employer inflexibility does make sense, when the summer break is so short, and I expect this often leads to tough choices. In the case of my D, we have a huge family reunion taking place out of state in May, on the occasion of a grandparent’s 90th birthday. D’s planned attendance at this event made her ineligible for a couple of attractive summer job opportunities because she’ll be out of town during the mandatory training period in May. But the family gathering is an unprecedented event - her grandfather’s children haven’t all been together at the same time in almost 30 years, and the grandchildren never. We felt the choice was clear. She has a part time job lined up for June and July, and plans to do some volunteering as well.</p>
<p>FWIW, my younger D did an internship at a national lab last summer (unpaid because of age, but everyone older than her was paid) and had no problems getting time off. Others in the group also took time off in the middle for various things.</p>
<p>Sbjdorlo: So glad to hear your son is getting along well. Our DD too was at the marathon, but not at the finish. I was able to get her on the phone as soon as I heard. She was in lockdown during the manhunt, but we never lost contact with her.</p>
<p>I have a dear friends with two kids at BC. They were ok, but what a stressful week. It;s bad enough to have the normal college freshman worries, let alone bombings.</p>
<p>DD is in the home stretch now … last week of classes, two finals and she will be home. She did finally land a summer job it appears through a friend of a friend - doing sumemr camp at a local gym. Which will also be good for the health gen ed she is taking this summer. She is also taking stats at Penn State local campus, which will knock off two geneds.</p>
<p>Trying to figure out the logistics for the pick up and pack up next week. I can’t believe it has been a year since graduation already. Wow, time does fly. Next year I will have a college sophomore and HS freshman. unbelieveable.</p>
<p>glido, my S was with his Wellesley girlfriend watching the Marathon. He had posted a picture of himself behind a Marathon barrier, which was cause for alarm later by Texas cousins that saw it, not knowing it was 13 miles from finish line. My sister called me in a panic. I was at DFW airport waiting to fly to Boston (delayed 2 hours). Girl D knows went to school with younger, still living, bomber; said he was “nice, funny, popular.” Another friend of D’s was still having hearing loss hours after the blast. Presumably recovered.</p>
<p>I was thinking about the effect of the blasts on hearing, notakid, being that I’m an ex-teacher of deaf/hard of hearing kids. Some of that loss could be permanent depending on how close they were to the blast.</p>
<p>Wow, remember the high stress of this particular month and week last year?! We had some hysterically funny discussions back then which helped a lot! Isn’t it hard to believe how close the end of this college year is!!!</p>
<p>My kid returns home in 2 weeks and will be doing a paid internship for the entire summer at the Japan American Society in our metro area. One of her big scholarships will also pay her a chunk of money because that internship with a non-profit organization is fulfulling one of her requirements for the scholarship. She has to do a 7-week full-time internship at any non-profit organizations during two different summers before she graduates college. She’s already looking ahead to junior year when she’ll be studying in Toyko because it just seems so much closer now and it’s been a part of her overall college plan for many years!</p>
<p>She’s really loving her college, is on the student government council, co-president of a campus organization, was one of 37 students chosen for a campus leadership retreat at the beginning of the semester, and also became the student rep for the largest freshman dorm on campus in January. She’s apparently taking over the world one step at a time. LOL She recently attended a 5-day service retreat in Appalachia. I really hope her studying is getting done too. She CLAIMS it is! </p>
<p>Next year she’ll be living in a theme house at the edge of her campus with maybe 6-7 others. The year after that she’ll be in Japan at a 40,000 student university, and then readjusting later to her senior year back on a very small campus again. There are a lot of interesting transitions ahead!</p>
<p>woody! Thanks for the update. I’m not surprised in the least. Anyone who is adept at getting a ~1200 lb animal to do what she wants shouldn’t have any trouble with people, right? :)</p>
<p>My S will be done Tuesday. It’s the little things, but I ordered a pizza tonight the way I like it. He is has very little chioces on his topping preferences. The next few months, the pizza will be his way so I am living it up before he gets home.</p>
<p>I know he is nervous about finals and has been studying a lot. I am just excited for him to be done and get to turn his brain off for a bit! Can’t wait to start hearing everyone’s coming home/end of freshman year dates like when we had the launch dates…April 30th here!!!</p>