<p>Senior awards night. D1 won’t be there to accept whatever it is she won. We’re thinking it’s maybe a very small scholarship. We’ll go instead. She’s working–plus her new motto seems to be </p>
<p>Where Mom and Dad are not, so too shall I be.</p>
<p>She goes from one little camping jaunt to the next. Then a party. Then work. Anything but home, basically. When she IS here, she’s either asleep or we’re at work (or both). I guess this helps prepare both her and us for what’s coming. Makes me sad, though.</p>
<p>Speaking of Thanksgiving break, one of the things that knocked one of my son’s favorites way down on the list was that the dorms closed for every single break. That would have been such a hassle and VERY expensive. At Beloit, the dorms only close at the end of the semester. I’m thinking if anything, I might fly out to him for Thanksgiving and we can stay in Chicago. But I’m hoping he has a friend he can go home with by then.</p>
<p>Hmmmmm…thanks for reminding me about the college email. S has finally started opening his own college mail which means I have no idea what has been sent to him. I have no illusions that my side job as his PA will be secure well into his fresman year… at least.</p>
<p>I just found out that S2’s dorms will close for Thanksgiving. We won’t be able to fly him home, but I’m sure he can either go home with a friend or take a train to DC to stay with his sister. But I was certainly surprised when I saw the calendar. The school has so many international students. But I also saw that they get over a month for Winter break, so that will be nice.</p>
<p>e-mail: not sure S knows how to log in (just kidding) & I am sure that he is NOT logging in ever! He will somehow have to get into the swing of things.</p>
<p>Just took him to his orientation/registration day. Friends & relatives were taking bets on when I would start to cry. S13 was so irritating in the car ride & he slept during the joint parent/student session. No crying on my part - just happy to push him to independence in a place where I don’t have to get annoyed by his laissez faire attitude.</p>
<p>S13 is going to room with an international student. I already told him to invite the boy to Thanksgiving at our house. (of course, maybe S13 can spend Christmas break overseas).</p>
<p>Re: e-mail, my D changed her e-mail address not long ago and never checks the old one anymore. She changed it for her school as well, but apparently not for some of the depts within the school that she deals with, like honors college and music dept. I check it myself occasionally, just in case. </p>
<p>Thought she was squared away with school for the moment, all scholarships accepted, math and music theory placement testing done, signed up for classes, AP scores to be sent directly, etc. Figured any more music audition/testing info that comes would not be time critical and could wait at least until after finals and graduation. But an e-mail DID come (alerted to necessity of reading this by another poster here with D going to same school.) A small part of her big scholarship is actually funded by another source than university. And if a form they sent and a post mailed thank you letter is not to them by next Friday, she forfeits that $1,000, no time extensions granted under any condition. Thanks again, STEMFamily. That was a surprise. You just can’t check too much or be too careful.</p>
<p>Oh, and I am a lurker. Just love this thread, but haven’t posted before.</p>
<p>I feel very bad for all of you that still have seniors in school - UGH!!! They will have a short summer. D13 and I got home late last night from her orientation. She is sooooo ready!!! Met her roommate that she hooked up with on Facebook and they have tons in common - should be good. Got a great schedule. Classes are over by noon on Friday! She is happy about that - saw dorm - took measurements - all was good! Only cried once!!!</p>
<p>Graduation was last night. Perfect weather! I did not cry at all, I think there were so many “lasts” over the last month that I got it out of my system and this was almost anti-climactic. It was so wonderfull to see such great kids together one last time. Our school is relatively small and I think I knew at least half of the class and their parents personally.</p>
<p>I will really miss being a part of that school community :(</p>
<p>S is still asleep at 1:00, and then off to the doc for the rest of his medical form signatures etc. Can’t believe I have a HS graduate!</p>
<p>surfcity - I agree, I, too, did not cry at graduation - too many other lasts before graduation. Now, going to college orientation brought a few tears - but I am soooo excited for my d13 - she really is ready.</p>
<p>Breaks: I am not sure what the policy is, but we are close enough (1 hr plane flight) that S3 will come home Thanksgiving and breaks, D1’s school is closed all breaks, S2’s school was open on breaks, BUT the dining halls were closed. </p>
<p>Tonight is the Senior Awards. It should be interesting. The venue is not great so I want to go early to get a seat and parking spot, but of course DH is hemming and hawing. I am trying my best to just enjoy it and not be uptight.</p>
<p>Welcome Celeste! Better Late than Never to share info!! DD finally did call the school to get her email unlocked…She wouldn’t show me the 'TONS" of emails with information that had been sent to her since May 4th! UGH! </p>
<p>Do any of your kids have to take placement tests?</p>
<p>Senior awards last night. D1 was one of only about 5 kids who weren’t present to collect. The school wanted to be notified of those who wouldn’t be there to cut down on the looking around the auditorium and waiting, so I dutifully made that call about a week ago. No good. After about an hour of award giving, D1 was announced as the winner of one of two English prizes, and there was…looking around the hall and waiting. It might still be going on if W hadn’t yelled “She’s at work!” Kind of embarrassing. She got one other small one (after the intermission!) as well. </p>
<p>It was a long, boring-yet-sweet night. Too bad all the girls get dressed up but half the boys don’t.</p>
<p>The attire was similar at our awards last night. The girls were all dressed nicely, some of the boys were too - one in a suit. But many of the boys were looking very sloppy in cargo shorts and t-shirts.</p>
<p>They had all the kids who were getting awards sit in two areas near the front, so the few times someone wasn’t there they moved on quickly.</p>
<p>Our Senior awards were last night too. They stipulated a dress code so all the guys had slacks and button down shirts. Most had ties, a few had jackets. The thing that stuck out to me was the height of the girls shoes! Only one tumble though. The kids sat up front, except S3 and a few of his friends because they ran out of seats. They had them in a holding area and they all paraded in, and since he and his friends were one of the first to arrive they were in the back of the holding area. He had quite a haul, He was called up to the stage I think 8 times so he got his exercise! He got the medallion for math and social science in addition to being named one of 6 valedictorians, but the shocker was being a finalist for athlete of the year which was completely unexpected. </p>
<p>Yesterday was S2’s last day of high school. He celebrated with a midnight movie! Now the summer begins…I told him that he can’t leave the house until he writes at least 2 thank you notes for graduation gifts. At this rate, he should be done by next week sometime. He still hasn’t found a job, and I’m not sure at this point he will. He keeps being honest and telling them that he’s leaving for college in August and no one will hire him. He’s got rehearsals for a show almost every night until Aug and he’s got a voice over gig in a couple weeks - so I guess he’ll keep semi-busy. Days will be full of sleeping late, playing WoW, hanging out at the pool. I’m a little jealous! :)</p>
<p>We had Sr Awards last night also. As I mentioned, I didn’t even know D was getting any kind of award. She actually got called up 3 times and every single time they butchered her last name. I totally embarrassed her and stood up and yelled each time she got something special. Man, it’s a long 3 hr night on hard gym bleacher seats.</p>
<p>I am sure this is the same at every school… there is one kid (a girl at our school) that wins EVERYTHING, including valedictorian. For some reason she sat in the back in the middle of the row. You’d think they would purposely just put her in the front so it was easy for her to get up and down all night. It started becoming a joke as the MC would say, Guess Who? each time there was some scholarship award. This girl must of raked in $30k of small community and merit scholarships.</p>
<p>Did I mention that D won Best Dressed??? There was a lot of hard effort that went into that Unfortunately there didn’t seem to be any kind of monetary scholarship recognition Maybe she can give fashion advice to the valedictorian who is going off to Yale!</p>
<p>Stumbling back in after finding the group! I knew something was up when I went to the normal board and it wasn’t on the first page!</p>
<p>Lots going on here! DS13 graduated two weeks ago, and I’ve been swamped with Grad party stuff. She had two with one to go. Our awesome family friends are throwing a party in her honor. DH is from India and since his family is not here, they have been our Indian family here, and are throwing her Indian party in their place! (Thankfully I don’t have to cook for that one.) Since D13 has been out, she has spent the majority of her time going to other friends grad parties. It seems like about 12 so far, and 5 more this weekend alone. I don’t mind. These kids worked so hard. I looked around my livingroom at one of her parties and we had kids going to Duke, Harvard, Princeton, U Chicago, Harvy Mudd, Michigan, our state flagship with full merit rides… just incredible hardworking kiddos.</p>
<p>My mind is now squarely on getting D13’ to College. We plan to drive and drop her, but out of curiosity, how many of your kids are flying, and if so, how are they getting all of their junk there? For reference, we are driving from the midwest to Columbia in New York. I’m not looking forward to the drive, and wish it could be avoided.</p>
<p>We’re flying, though the distance is less than 600 miles. I’m a teacher, so we just don’t have time to drive (because his school starts at the same time as mine). Because I’m elite with United we’ll get to check seven bags free of charge. That should be more than enough to take all of his stuff there. Bulky items (waste basket, fridge if needed, foam mattress pad, etc.) will be shipped directly to school (mostly using Amazon prime).</p>
He’s got rehearsals for a show almost every night until Aug and he’s got a voice over gig in a couple weeks - so I guess he’ll keep semi-busy. Days will be full of sleeping late, playing WoW, hanging out at the pool. I’m a little jealous! :)</p>
Unfortunately there didn’t seem to be any kind of monetary scholarship recognition