Re health care POAs, you might need these before age 18. In Alabama health care professionals aren’t allowed to share information with a parent for anyone over age 16. Not sure about other states.
Congrats to everyone pulling into the station at last!! @MACmiracle I was so happy to read your post. You guys have been through so much this year, it’s great to see you all so happy and at peace now! 
Took D this past weekend for whirlwhind “pre-orientation” trip where she registered for classes, got her student ID, even made a new friend! Plus we exited the bookstore with a heavy load of swag to carry home. 
The fam is now all outfitted!!
@map888 I’m prepping for a cross-country move this summer as well, it feels like I’ve got an extra couple sets of to-do lists I’m trying to manage! Best of luck to you! I think there’s another one of us doing a big move this summer or fall thing as well.
I think my D would be so jealous of all of you finishing up this week or even this month! She’s so bone tired and ready to be done, but they don’t finish until June 13, with graduation that same night. Prom isn’t until May 26th! I think a lot of you will be graduated by then!
Senior Prom: Done. 3 more days of classes. Graduation in 11 days. DD is ready (I AM NOT! 
)
thanks @hafamama !
We were busy ironing a UCSB logo a t-shirt last night. My S didn’t buy any at the colleges we visited. Tomorrow the high school is having a celebration and he wanted the shirt to wear. Parents are invited so I’m excited to see all the college and other choices his classmates made.Graduation for him isn’t until June. And the prom isn’t until late May.
Getting in on the fun with a new avatar!!
The new avatars are fun! But I will have to switch mine back in a bit, lest by D15 USC Trojan get jealous, LOL. Interestingly, mine does not show quite so well since the site redesign.
We can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Last week of DE classes next week – 2 finals. Following week – 3 AP tests. Lots of banquets, awards ceremonies, activities in the next few weeks. May 18th is my favorite tradition, Senior Day. They “build” the senior class from kinder - 12th announcing all kids who started in district for each grade (all 455 of them) and “remember when” memories for each year. Held in football stadium with baby picture/senior picture on jumbo tron and parents/siblings attend. Dismissed for family lunch and then students return in cap/gown to their elementary school to walk the halls and reception with former teachers. Definitely a day for waterproof mascara. That is the last official day of school for seniors if they are exempt from finals. Graduation is June 1. DS will attend orientation and register at A&M on May 30-31. Going to be a crazy month. Senior picture proofs arrived in my inbox today and I literally cried when I saw that good looking young man who will always be my baby boy. Enjoy each moment, parents. This is what we have been preparing them 18 years for!! Fly baby birds, fly! Don’t just fly, soar!!
@S18D20mom I’ve seen Sr. day on the news, I think its awesome! Skip the mascara, its probably just easier
DD says today “So, I admit, the idea of just being dropped off in another state is a bit terrifying”
I told her I would try to make sure her Brother doesn’t burn rubber as we depart the parking lot 
I know she is ready but these little comments remind me she is still a kid and this is hard on them too.
We are 17 days from departure to Orientation - DD is going Solo and getting very excited! Her Honors College has a chat group and she is becoming involved in the group, having fun learning where everyone is from.
I mentioned matching roommate decor and was it a thing? When DD got done laughing, she reminded me her decor is her Star Trek blanket and Spiderman quilt. I’m thinking matching is not her thing
Seems like lots of people must be making last minute decisions, because we just found out D18 has been awarded the full ride scholarship she was waitlisted for in March! What a wonderful surprise. She had completely written off the prospect of getting it, though this doesn’t affect where she is going, because she had already made the decision to attend. But another $10K p.a. for fees, room, board and books on top of her existing full tuition scholarship is a great bonus.
S’s performance of Romeo & Juliet is this weekend. Prom is next weekend, with AP tests running the week before and the week after. Who scheduled that? Geez!
His college orientation is just after Memorial Day. He doens’t graduate until the 7th of June, though.
The graduation dinner is booked.
Tomorrow he’ll do a mandatory info session for his summer EMT class. There’s a whole punch list f things he has to have ready before the first day of class for that one - immunizations, background check, physical, FEMA classes.
The immunizations are mostly done, but the pharmacist thinks we’re nuts. We’ve had to do multiple visits because some of these are a series of injections with specific timing. The first time we went, they didn’t have Gardasil in stock. When the pharmacist said they were out, I quipped “That’s OK cuz there won’t be any of that going on in the back of that van.” The poor man nearly choked. (Gardasil isn’t required for EMT. S wanted it anyway.)
Next time we went back, there was some confusion about whether S had had the first set of Hep A / Hep B shots. I was saying he had. The pharmacist was saying no.
Me, to S: But you look so good in yellow! (a jaundice joke)
Then later, while the pharmacist was going through more paperwork, S said, “So if you get a vaccination, and then you lose your arm in a horrible car crash when you leave, do you have to get the shot again?”
Pharmacist, wide-eyed, but staring intently at his papers to avoid making eye contact, “Um, … yes?”
I already dropped my college specific avatar. Have 3 kids and felt too biased to only pick one. I know some people merge them, but I have no clue how to do that.
@WWC4me, my daughter prefers that the match, but is okay if they don’t. If they don’t match exactly, she would at least like the colors to match. She knows the roommate (hope there is only 1), could say no and she will happily find something she likes.
Looks like we made it!!!
As the final minutes of 5/1/18 tick away on the clock we the Parents of the Class of 2018 officially hand down to the Parents of the Class of 2019 the final year to college decision baton! Remember it is a marathon, not a sprint and always keep an open mind ( my daughter is going to a school she nor I knew about a year ago) and most of all keep a great sense of humor. Your CC Parents of 2019 will be there for you if you need a place to vent, worry, scream or just cry…never let the kids, high schools, or colleges see you sweat. Your peeps will have your back and get you through.
From our long checkout lines at Bed, Bath and Beyond we will cheer you on!!
And on 5/1/2019 after a year of normalcy, rest and hopefully recreational reading instead of college essay reading…I will be taking up the baton again with my peeps in the Parents of Class of 2020.
Go get em 2019!
Like @MinnieFan wrote, it’s definitely a marathon, not a sprint. In fact, I’d add that it feels in some ways like we’ve been through a war, Battle hardened, mostly civil discussions about pros and cons, but some battles along the way (note to self-have the financial discussion early next time!). Ups and downs, appeals, taking two steps forward and gaining ground, then one step back. At least we’re across the finish line (us parents) but the stress continues at school for the students (AP tests to study for, unreasonable teachers giving out way too much homework still, and extracurriculars to finish up). Forget the ice cream. Ready for a glass of wine!
@Nomorelurker I like ice cream, but I like wine more. So I’m ready for a bottle of wine! =))
@MinnieFan I’m a 2019 parent who has been following this thread closely. Congratulations to all!
Not sure I’m ready to take that baton. It’s getting more real over here. Yesterday, I thought “OMG, THE COMMON APP OPENS IN THREE MONTHS.”
Last year my S was in the thick of the spring musical, no time to take the SAT, so he took it in June.
We visited some schools in July and he applied to his first choice before we left to go on vacation.
He didn’t have to write essays until he applied for local scholarships.
@MinnieFan ^:)^ =D>
Has anyone else felt a momentary pang of sadness for the choice that their student didn’t make? I don’t think my son made a bad decision in any way, as he had two very good choices with distinct pros/cons. I’m super proud of his choice (and it means a lot more financial security for him and for me), but I have this (unexpected) pang for the lost opportunities. I am sure that “this too shall pass,” and the only feelings I’m conveying to him are those of support. Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this. I am trying to recall if I felt this way with my older son’s decision last year…I don’t recall it, but maybe that is a sign that the feeling passed quickly.
You’re not the only one @VAMom23. My daughter choose the school that had been her dream, and ours, forever, but I still feel sad about the one she did not choose. I think because their decision came out a couple weeks earlier and we were already warming up to the amazing opportunity that she had there.