We have a graduate! The ceremony was two hours or so, pretty good speeches from the val/sal and also a few others. It’s kind of surreal to think that this part of his life is behind him. This is a whole new beginning, and I can feel the time getting shorter before he leaves in a way that’s different than before he graduated. We had some of his friends over for a low-key open house and they swam and watched movies. It was great. Real party will be in a few weeks.
The college paperwork stream is underway too, which is kind of fun. I had to reschedule his annual physical to meet the school’s deadlines for paperwork. He meets with a registration advisor this week. Planning to start checking off a bunch of the financial and legal stuff (debit card, power of attorney, etc.) tomorrow and hopefully wrap that up by the end of the month so we can actually try to enjoy the rest of the summer.
For the moment though, I am sitting in the parking lot of a regional high school (not ours - driver’s ed is hard to come by around here, so we have to travel quite a distance to find a class) while my 27 goes to driver’s ed - listening to a bagpipe and drum troupe rehearse in the parking lot. Perhaps for this school’s graduation? Or some event? Who knows, and I know not everyone loves the bagpipes, but gosh, I sure do (in reasonable amounts), and it always tugs at the emotions just a bit. It’s going to be such a quick summer!
Looks like I haven’t been on here in 2 weeks! I wish it was because I was so busy traveling around Greece, Japan or getting ready for an Alaskan cruise but no, it’s just been a whirlwind of activity around my kid. We had a big birthday party for her with a DJ and catering at a rented hall. It was fun for the kids and according to the Photo Booth operator this group of kids were definitely not shy like she’s used to seeing. They’re mostly theater/band kids and had no problem getting onto the dance floor and cutting up. Then prom was next and I was renting a 14 person passenger van my husband was driving so the kids didn’t have to make the 45 minute commute to where prom was. In past years when the school chose a venue far away they rented school buses but not this year. The cost was split between the 14 passengers, one parent has a food truck and were prepping for an event so they brought my husband some food while most of the parents (me too) went out to dinner. It was a wonderful night. Then the next Monday was senior skip day. I drove D, 2 of her friends and 1 German exchange student to Six Flags for the day. They immediately ditched me and I had the pleasure of looking all over the park for any comfortable chair with a back since it’s mainly benches and picnic tables. 7 hours later we left. Kids had a wonderful day, the German student loves America and I slept for like 10 hours that night. The awards ceremony was tonight, D got a few small scholarships which was nice. Now I have to prepare for my mom to come stay with us for graduation plus a casual graduation party for the day after. I am getting anxious just typing all this out. I’m staying far away from Amazon because I don’t want to end up with 4 fans which is starting to sound reasonable. One to clip to the bed rail, one portable wearable, a bigger one for the room…
Achievement unlocked! Kid picked a room! Now we will wait to see who their roommate will be (eek!). They just picked an empty spot (you can pick a specific room/bed) and is letting other people self-select in…so we may not know for a week or so depending.
The building is slated for a renovation over the summer which should mean nice clean bathrooms, etc.
They didn’t seem to want to worry about sun, but I think they will have a better than average view of trees…
Is anyone else hearing this sort of comment from their kid? D25 has repeatedly said to me over the last few weeks that she can’t wait to go to college because she is tired of defending her choice to both friends and acquaintances, and even those who are in her own university’s text thread. She says that while she doesn’t doubt her choice, it’s hard to feel like she would have “gotten more respect” if she had chosen the higher ranked/more prestigious school. (And the truth is, at least around where I live, she’s not wrong; she would get more accolades and others would be more impressed if she had chosen UCLA or WashU or Swat over UCI. Never mind that UCI is still in the top 40 of those blasted ratings.) She’s fine, but I wish she (and I’ll be honest, I–I’ve had some acquaintances be aghast that we let her turn down those schools to both study dance and go to UCI) didn’t have to feel defensive about her choice.
We had the same reaction with my D22 and I can tell you that 3 years in she has no regrets about turning down the more prestigious schools. She would 100% make the same decision if she were to go back in time. What matters is that you and her know it’s the right choice for her!
The daughter of a friend of mine got off the UCI waitlist recently and accepted their offer, in place of the supposedly more prestigious UC (those perceptions again!) she had already deposited at. It really is about fit. Location and her specific major were factors, as was great feedback she’d got from some other people she knew who were already there.
BWA HAHAHAHAHA. (Also, that nearly IS what my 4 fans were - one clipped to the bed rail, one was a tower fan for the room, one was a largeish round one, and instead of a portable wearable a portable that could sit on the desk or fit in a backpack to “travel” anywhere…)
Same thing happened with my older son - he chose the unheard of where I live WPI over Purdue engineering. People had heard of his other small engineering schools (RPI and CWRU) but when I said WPI I got a reaction like “is that a VoTech school?” It wasn’t great but it bugged me more than him (this is directly related to our personalities). But like @Malsandhuskies, with 3 years down, he’s so happy that he made the choice that he did. I’ll be crossing fingers for all of our kids to find themselves in the same boat.
I say send your kid with a toolbox. My older kids confirm that it comes in handy more than you think and most kids (surprisingly) don’t think to bring one. There is a great one on Amazon for about $20. Make friends on your hall!
S24 needed a step up to his bed. He could have used his desk chair which was by the bed, but I ended up getting one of those storage ottomans, but found a taller one than the usual cubes. He rolled his eyes at the time, but I asked him if he was taking it back next year and he said it made great second seating when anyone came by.
Graduation was finally last night. D25 was named Valedictorian! The principal would not tell them until they were on the stage receiving the award. My D worked SO hard for this, and it was almost stolen from her by someone who transferred into the school. She worked her butt off and prevailed! Grad party on Saturday and then we can close the high school chapter of her life.
Now I understand why S25 didn’t say a word to anyone outside of the family about where he is going, didn’t wear a t-shirt or hoodie on designated days at HS, didn’t post it anywhere on socials (well he doesn’t even have any posts on any socials to begin with)… The people who know learned through the “grape vine” but not from him, and he never gave anyone the chance to even have that conversation so… He is VERY reserved.
It’s terrible that people feel entitled to opine on and judge others’ college choices.
Well, graduation was Wednesday night, grad parties are done, meeting with college advisor was today, last physical and planning for meds in college was today, and I feel like he’s getting things checked off. He’s spending the night at a friends house and tomorrow they and 8 other guys head to the beach. They are normally smart boys and good humans. But beach week and just graduated seniors do not always mix well. Let’s all cross our fingers that everyone is safe and responsible and careful over the next week.
C25 is also headed to the beach tomorrow. We had some real “adulting” convos this evening.What if you’re pulled over? What if the police come to a party? What if you’re at a party and get a bad vibe? Don’t take already opened drinks, ever. I sure hope these lessons are not needed but, I think Beach Week is probably unpredictable. Better to have at least talked things through. Maybe a few lessons learned before going away in the fall.
Back in the 80s and 90s (so a million years ago) we lived in Orange County and we always had season tickets to UCI’s Broadway series. The talent was unreal, truly phenomenal.
I remember then being disappointed when I attended UCLA because there were no productions like UCI had. Sure there were individual students who were vocal or music
majors but the overall quality in my uninformed opinion was nowhere near that of UCI.
Also to answer your question, I was worried that people we know would be critical of my daughter’s choice because she turned down a couple of higher ranked schools (Clemson and Mines) to attend Baylor. Thankfully that hasn’t happened. I’ve since come to realize that Baylor is one of those schools students choose for reasons other than ranking.
D25 is going to a school that none of her friends had heard of and thankfully there has not been stigma about it that I have heard from her friends. The only person I felt I had to overexplain her choice to was her dad actually (my ex). S23 got free tuition the first year at Cuse so my ex didn’t understand why D25 didnt pick one of the schools she was offered free tuition at (there were a handful). I have had much stress about how long I will stay at my current job that allows the tuition benefit and I am thankful she felt brave enough to say no to the urban free tuition schools if she didn’t feel they were good fits for her. Room and board at Cuse alone cost over 20k so free tuition does not mean free ride.
Today D25 got a letter that she got another 5k scholarship from her stepdad’s (my current husband’s) fraternity for her essay on why she wants to be a social worker and how she has enjoyed coaching youth dance the past couple of years. Her school direct costs are 28k/yr. She earned 8k/yr merit from CMich plus a federal pell grant of 7400. Add her 5k scholarship and we will be paying only 7600 for the year for a school where she felt she would be happy and supported and have fun at. Post pandemic has been financially difficult and having 2 kids in college was putting more strain on me. This little gift of an extra 5k next year really, really helps. I might cry a little.
And…My 25 is graduated! Lovely ceremony and we all survived the multitudes of relatives visiting.. (relatives don’t all get along, exactly, so was stressful).
Phew
I feel pride and a big relief all those end of year logistics are over.
Graduation done. It was lovely. Prom with friends at a neighboring school next day. Finished with a very small graduation party yesterday.
Today he has his advisor meeting along with some virtual orientation and then summer is officially here! Phew to all of it!
It feels good to be on the other side of it.
Graduation for us is still not until the 20th. I’m both happy and annoyed that it’s so late. Gives me more time to enjoy what my S25 has left of HS but I feel for him that he’ll have such a short summer.
It was an eventful May… S25 came in third place in Senior Assassin which I was quite proud of, LOL. He negotiated a deal with the person who won so he’ll actually came away with a $150. I got very invested in the game and the strategy behind it (so fun). Someoene did threaten to shoot him for trespassing (not good but lesson learned) and questioned by the police for another situation(b/c he looked very similar to a 21 year old who was arrested for leud behavior), thank goodness they found the other kid. Prom was the same day as the police questioning and luckily ended up being a wonderful day (even after all the craziness). Oh his car also got backed into in the school parking lot. It will cost $3700 to fix, but luckily the junior girl admitted fault and the mom was extremely nice about it.
The end of HS has been an adventure to say the least.
We head down to SC for orientation on the 24th and then back home for a few weeks b/f school begins in mid-August.
