Parents of the HS Class of 2024 (Part 2)

[DeeCee36]

D24 met with her advisor to map out her schedule for spring. She registers next week. There’s not much room in the ChemE curriculum for anything other than required courses until a year from now (spring of year 2). So, she’ll be taking Calc II, Chem II, University Physics, ChemE Insights II and something else (I can’t remember) + either yoga or pilates for her 1 credit wellness requirement.

Spoke with her last weekend, and she sounds good. Classes are getting intense, but she seems on top of it. Socially, things are still a bit quiet. She went to Syracuse two weekends in a row (football game and Halloween parties), and told me she and her roommate were forgoing parties and having a “wellness weekend” when we spoke (shopping, gym and an evening of nails and face masks). I’m so thankful that she and the roommate get along so well. I’m eager for her to expand her friend roster next semester - keeping my fingers crossed that she follows through with rushing.

She comes home on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and my D20 arrives the next day. It will be the first time the four of us have all been together since July 1st. I can’t wait.

[Snowball2]

deleted–maybe too quirky to share

[HKDad1]

S24 got all of the classes he wanted for the next semester! So far he is enjoying his experience and had made a lot of friends.
He said he is doing well… except for his Calculus, since he was never a math wiz.
He is going to stay in the campus for Thanksgiving. Words on the street is that he would be doing some cooking to feed his friends!

[sbinaz]

this weekend was Homecoming weekend at D26’s college. The choir she’s in sang the national anthem at the start of the game and then she did not stick around to watch the game. That’s my “I’m not into sports!” kid for ya! It was also Parents Weekend but we did not go due to $$$ and we’ll be seeing her at the end of this week anyway.

[isitmayyet]

S24 didn’t initially get orgo (only spring/summer) and no one he knew did either. Got super lucky when they added a 50 person lab a couple days later. Many still not in and guess it’s a lab space issue. I have to believe this is issue many places and only so much lab space and not needing to apply into a major? A little worried it’s too aggressive of a schedule with 2 bios on top but fingers crossed.

Good news, today had an hour long meeting with the Dean of PH, he mentioned a class he was dying to take with him in his application, so funny he wound up in his office already! I’ve been so impressed that everyone he’s reached out to has been so generous with their time.

[huango]

Hasn’t been able to keep up.

Just coming in to share that DD is in the UMass Amherst Marching Band, and we’re looking forward to watching them march in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade next week!
exciting

We’re extremely grateful for our schooling system that got kids into music starting in 5th grade through senior year.

[sbinaz]

D24 flies home tomorrow! Woo hoo!

[Luanne]

Exciting! I am also grateful for the music program at our schools. All 3 of mine will do something musical in college and it’s such a great part of their lives.

[Snowball2]

D24 just rolled into town! We’re going out to either an upscale sandwich shop or a sushi place for lunch. Then, we’ll walk the dog, come back, and pull out a bunch of Christmas decor boxes. Hooray!

[NiceUnparticularMan]

S24 does not get home until Tuesday. Booo. But then it is a short period before a long winter break, so OK overall.

[twokids2go]

Drove down to pick up D24 from school for Thanksgiving. We ended up doing a very late impromptu trip to see Wicked along with her sister. Had to squeeze it in because she’s working a 10 hr shift today and a 6 hour shift tomorrow (and likely Monday and Tuesday as well). She said her spending money was depleted and needed to be recharged.
She looks good and she introduced me to several of her friends. She told me she is enjoying college, “unlike at the beginning of the semester” and has ended up becoming good friends with the students on her hall as well as some in her major and from one of the clubs she joined. She got the final grade from one of her classes (final optional if she did well on the first 3 exams) and she is happy with the grade so I am too. The semester doesn’t end until 12/6 but the professor isn’t teaching anything new after this week. When older sister left for university, I didn’t see her for 2 years so it is odd having D24 come home for both fall break and Thanksgiving (but I love it).

[shawk]

D24 is now home! AND we have power - after 4 days/nights in the dark and cold, courtesy of the PNW bomb cyclone. We are celebrating! Will see D21 in the southern hemisphere for Christmas after her study abroad ends. And then we will celebrate some more, I’ve really missed our family of 4 these past few months.

[DeeCee36]

So jealous of these long Thanksgiving breaks! D24 arrives home late Tuesday night. The upside is she goes back on 12/1 and comes home for a full month on 12/13.

[sbinaz]

D24 is back home for a week! She seems happy. She talked about a lot of different stuff…like how she & her roommate really get along well and have become pretty good friends. Talked about how not everybody’s had as good luck on the roommate front…another girl she knows “barely talks to her roommate, they’re definitely not friends, they just sort of coexist in the same living space and tolerate each other.” She’s glad that she hasn’t had that same experience.

She likes her bio professor better than the chem professor, but is still glad to have the chem prof that she does this semester, likes how he’s formatted the class and she’s got the same guy next semester, too.

She’s been invited to join an additional choral group on campus…she doesn’t know what it’s called, but it’s a smaller group of just female singers, led by the same music professor who leads the much bigger a capella choir. D24 said that some other students have asked the professor/choir director if they could join this other choral group, but she was asked to sit in on one of their practices and afterwards was asked to join the group starting next semester. We’re just glad that she’s involved in something outside of class and that she enjoys it.

DH has already started to bug D24 about a job for next summer. D24’s ‘off the cuff’ backup plan is to do deliveries for Door Dash. Um, nah, wrong answer…you’ll need to come up with some better ideas, kiddo. However, whenever DH talks about jobs, he’s very excitable & passionate about the topic and D24 doesn’t listen to him when he gets like that. so that’s fun.

I’ve already told DH that my tactic is going to be some time this week or over winter break, I’m going to talk with her individually (nobody else in our immediate family present). And I’m going to suggest that she go talk to the people on campus in the career center AND to go talk to the pre-health advisors in Jan. or Feb. to get some input on whether there are categories of part or full time summer work that she as a pre-health student should consider pursuing.

…because if the advice comes from somebody who’s not Mom or Dad, then she’s more apt to listen. LOL.

Tomorrow, she’s going to reserve her ride back to school from the airport at the end of Thanksgiving break.

She’s already made plans to meet up w/high school friends on Wed & next Saturday. The college counselor at our high school asked her to participate in an online round table discussion in January with parents & current 8th graders…our HS does this every year…has a panel of recent graduates & the 8th graders & their parents get to ask the panel a bunch of questions about what the high school experience is like, do you feel this particular HS prepared you well for college, what was it like in the college counseling class that they have the seniors take, that sort of thing.

D24 is pretty stoked about that because she wasn’t a straight A “I’ve found the cure to cancer” sort of student. I think the counselor is including her because the counselor wants the parents & students to be able to see & hear straight from the horse’s mouth that it’s possible to end up at a good school even if you’re not a perfect student. At any rate, it was an ego boost for her and she’s looking forward to dishing out some advice to the middle schoolers (D26 reports that this year’s 8th graders are ‘feral’ ).

[AlfaBeta72]

Happy Thanksgiving week everyone, I hope you’re all going to enjoy family time and the kids coming home! For us Alfabetas it’s obviously different, because of the Atlantic Ocean in the middle and the fact that Thanksgiving in Europe is just another rainy Thursday in November… S24 will be going to NYC with a friend from Tuesday, so at least he’ll get to enjoy his first quintessential family holiday in the US! Hopefully he bags himself a proper winter coat beforehand (he left his old one at home in August and we’ve kept reminding him that NY at the end of November is not quite Richmond in the fall, so ). He still seems very happy and engaged at school, played yesterday in his first Virginia soccer derby (against VCU ofc) and is truly enjoying his time away. He will be rushing a fraternity soon, which we’re slightly nonplussed about (I guess College Greek culture is something that will always seem a bit odd to a non-American) but good on him for embracing his experience to the full… Well, at least we’re only 3-odd weeks away from him coming back, it’ll be great to hug him and overfeed him Italian sweets at Christmas. Have a great time everyone!

[coastal2024]

S24 got home very late Friday night and we did not see him until yesterday afternoon as he was out late with friends and then slept most of the day. He is very happy to have a week to catch up on sleep and be fed and see friends. He loves school socially but academically it is a huge shift from high school and he does not like that it is hard. I feel like many of these kids have never had to work hard in high school and then they get to college and freak out. The tutoring has helped quite a bit for the math class. he is struggling with so he feels a bit better.

Things here at home have not been great- our public school teachers have been on strike since before Veteran’s Day so D26 has not been in school in two weeks! It feels like covid all over again with the kids sitting at home, no work to do and no motivation to do anything. The governor is getting involved at this point because it has dragged on for so long. It has caused a lot of stress for all of us and I am sure S24 can feel the vibe I have tried to get D26 to use the downtime to do test prep but the motivation is lacking (understandibly).

We have the annual rival football game on Wednesday night, then Thanksgiving celebration here at home with just my sister joining us. They are tracking a winter storm to him Thursday/Friday so that will be interesting.

Happy holidays to all and enjoy the family time.

[Snowball2]

That’s so cool that your daughter is speaking at the roundtable discussion! And it cracks me up that your husband is on to the topic of jobs. What about the scooter/motorcycle theme?
D24 has acquired some bona fide hipster-type friends. Her first “weird” pursuit in college: we were going to leave for lunch out, but she said, “Hold on, I’m doing tarot!” The funny thing is that she had to ask me where the tarot deck was. I bought one a long time ago because it was entirely illustrations of crows (my favorite bird). Today she’s going to meet a friend for lunch (unless they go walking all over town instead–her friend is a big walker). Her friend’s new pursuit is mountain biking–and boy is she tough as a rider. Then, we’ll go to the museum for a Georgia O’Keefe exhibit. I’m going to try to time a lot of my work this week for when D24 is out with friends. That way I get all the time with her that I can.

[snappity207]

I will pick up D24 on Tuesday, and she will bus/train back to school on Sunday, and then I’ll be back to get her on either Friday or Monday to get her for winter break! She doesn’t have final exams, just projects/papers (and I prefer to do the drive on a weekday and have a ton of PTO I need to burn next month). Her roommate was moving out this weekend - she was local and decided to commute from here on out. They got along fine but not the BFF connection that some get (and also not the horror stories, either, so that’s good!) She hasn’t heard if she is getting a new roommate, so she’s just not asking and figures she will deal with whatever, but hoping she ends up with a spare bed for spring, and considering asking about a single next year since she isn’t sure how a new roommate would work and doesn’t have any prospects at this time. She is looking forward to the thanksgiving visit - will be a little more chaotic as I pick her up Tuesday, we go to my folks Wed-Fri, and she will return Sunday - so the winter break that starts a week later will be her real exhale.

[helpingthekid73]

S24 is a musician and inthe past this has been the time to figure out the summer. This year is so different. He has been so busy this semester that meeting with the career center has just been a bust, finally got him to make an appointment for tomorrow! Now how does someone who is a freshman in college make a resume!

[sflawyermom]

Hi all -

Glad to have all the updates, been a while for me. My S24 who is attending Berkeley (mech E) next year is on a gap year, happily ensconced in a tech job in Madrid. He left sort of late (found an apartment through spotahome). He’s not coming for Thanksgiving of course, but will be home for a week or so over X-mas break. Will have C21 home starting Tuesday evening, so all eyes (and attention) will be on them.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!