<p>Momsdream, I join others in really enjoying hearing about the follow up to your son’s journey this past year. I think he is going to have an amazing time. Sounds like a special drop off for a special kid. </p>
<p>Marite, I could not help but tune into your account about setting the table and making dinner for four when there was only three. My younger D wrote one of her many college admissions essays about the effect of her sister leaving for college on her last fall, and her opening to the essay and the moment that touches off her account has to do with setting the table for four when it was to have been three and how it had finally hit her that her sister was gone and what it all meant for her. Perhaps I can find a way to send it to you because it is so tied to your anecdote. </p>
<p>I guess I ought to share my drop off of one of my kids, but have one to go in two days. </p>
<p>Took my youngest to NYU/Tisch this past weekend. Went down on Saturday to NYC (it is a six hour drive from here). Car was loaded to the hilt and then some, with more on top. We had to leave on my other D’s 19th birthday so we had to squeeze in that celebration as well. She stayed back home (no room for her in the car, lol). Took parting picture of the four of us. Got in the car and D’s cute lamp shade she had bought that has beads hanging off the bottom rim was on front seat…no place for it and so she puts it on her head like a hat and it was pretty funny (helped me keep from crying) and so we took a picture of that ;-). Had all her goodbyes with local friends, which is different than for some of your kids because her local friends are about to enter senior year as she normally would be as well and so it was not like any of them were leaving (but a few older friends). Her close theater friends (mostly from out of state) are all older than herself and that is a peer group she is very bonded with socially. </p>
<p>We knew the NYU move in day would be crazy and it did live up to that expectation. Got to Third Avenue North (apt. style dorms) at 9:15 AM and hubby dropped me and D off and kept driving around the block for about an hour until a drop off slot for the car opened up (and when it did, it was right near the entrance). The line to check in was already winding down the block and in fact, that line took us 90 minutes until she was able to get her key. This might sound terrible, but let me say as the day wore on, it was even much longer. It really was a sight to be hold. There were huge piles of kids’ lives stacked up along the sidewalk for the block. My D’s roomie whom she knows from our state through theater over the years, came soon after we arrived and joined us in the line with her mom as her dad dealt with their car. My hubby was able to pull up for his 15 min. allottment of curb time and unloaded everything on the sidewalk and I had to stay with it. He actually was able to get a metered spot about a block away for the rest of the day. </p>
<p>Once they got into the dorm, they were able to borrow one of the big moving bins/carts but only for a 30 min. allotment. That might sound like plenty but then the lines to use the elevators were very long too (but MUCH worse in the afternoon, winding around the block). This dorm has 1000 kids (about 2/3’s the size of our entire town, lol). My husband and daughter were able to make two full bin trips up the elevator before having to return the bin. But my hubby had rented a two wheeler back home and used that and then luckily my D is only on the second floor of her tower and so they took smaller things up the stairs on many trips. I finally made it into the building by noon. </p>
<p>The bedroom is small but I knew this was a possibility. It is made up by the fact that they have an apartment so there are two bedrooms of two girls each (my D knows her bedroom roomie and met the other two girls who share a second bedroom…had spoken online before moving in; seemed nice…one is in Tisch for film and one is in GSP) and then they have a common/living room equipped with table and four chairs, sofa, shelving/TV type unit, plus a kitchen and a private bathroom (two sinks in one half and toilet/tub/shower in other closed half). So, that helped feel like much more space than simply a small bedroom. We knew it was a possibility that they might have built in drawers under the bed and they did which meant that all the under the bed storage units bought had to go back home and then find places for all their stuff. But we somehow did. Both girls had a lot of stuff but they and both sets of parents set the room up and when it was done, it looked really nice I think and they were full of excitement. It was very HOT and my husband did not discover until the end of the day that their AC was not turned on and that it is controlled within your own unit. So, now it’s good but not when WE were in there! My D had brought a piano/keyboard and it fit in their living room luckily as it never would have in the bedroom. They had their kitchen fully set up as they had each brought various things for it (my D had shopped in our state with her roomie and then another girl bought other stuff). </p>
<p>I had to go with my D to a bank (the only one open on Sunday…though I couldn’t believe any bank would be, but I found this all out ahead of time) to set an account up for her (because she is sixteen and has to do it with a parent). It was kinda a mess that I won’t get into now, and not great, but we have worked it all out as best we can given the situation. That took a while. The walk to the bank…I could just tell my D could not believe she was going to be living in NYC after years of dreaming this. My hubby was back at the room hanging things up and setting up electronics and internet and all that dad stuff (with the other dad!). By the time we got back, the girls had to go to their first Tisch thing at 5 PM and so they were in such a hurry at that point, that the goodbye was short and sweet…which on my end, is probably a good thing because I really cry if I think about this. They were two giddy girls off to live on their own (the blind leading the blind in NYC…they both grew up in the country). My D thanked us for giving her this opportunity and how lucky she was to have it (my other D said the same thing when we said goodbye to her last year, her freshman year).</p>
<p>My D knows about a dozen kids at Tisch and about a half dozen entering ones as well, and a couple in NYC to attend school too. So, kids were stopping by the room and so forth. I know being let loose in NYC even with the kids she already knows was a big treat and of course, the meeting of lots of new friends too. Then my hubby and I got some dinner on her block (there is so much on every block in NYC! and also there is a Loews complex across from her dorm) and we ran into her roomies and their parents at dinner (our D was at a Tisch event by then). We got home very late last night. </p>
<p>I always fret that this particular D won’t call but she actually did this morning. Last night was the Tisch welcome event and she said it was very upbeat…along the lines of “we have been waiting for you to arrive and are so excited for you to be here” and that the Tisch kids were all cheering and so forth and she contrasted this to a first day assembly at high school where nobody cares and said “this was different…everyone was so happy to be here!” and then she had a dorm floor meeting…and then she had a meeting with her mentor and a group of seven girls (one other was in CAP21, my daughter’s Musical Theater program) and they had dinner out and then went to the Freshman Loft Party where she met up with her friends. She said there were great views of the Empire State Building. She went on to a party for her dorm in this big courtyard at her dorm…some Luau Party and then hung with friends. They have orientation for both Tisch and all of NYU all week, lots of events and happenings. She has next weekend off. Then classes begin next Tuesday, starting with “auditions” at CAP21, her studio. </p>
<p>It’s hard to believe all this is happening after the anticipation throughout the college process and auditions, but also dreaming of it for years. She waited for this day and it is here. And for my D’s past six months, after coming so close to having it all end due to her car crash and to get accepted while in a hospital bed and wondering if she would ever do this all again, and to be recovered in time to be here, is even more thrilling. </p>
<p>For me, it hasn’t hit me but when I think about it, it is really hard as a mom but I know I will get used to it, because I went through it last year with my oldest daughter. I’m happy for my girls to be doing what they worked hard for and all that will come for them now…new adventures, exciting times, and so forth. But after all these years, it is tough to have them leave for good basically. And it is hard to even think about them being on their own (though I do get used to it but at first it is a shock to the system) and not under my supervision any longer. For this particular child, it came sooner than most, because she is still 16 and then it is hard for me to fathom her in a city which is an enormous contrast to the environment in which she grew up. It is where she wants to be and I’m sure will figure it out. I get torn up thinking about it so try not to think too much (but it does hit me at times).</p>
<p>One reason it has not had its total effect on me is that I have come home for just two days and am shopping, gathering and packing up with my other D and leave on Wed. for her move in day at Brown on Thursday. THEN when I come home, bam, that is it! </p>
<p>Susan</p>
). She came home the other night and said, “Mom, they take the NYU card at Whole Foods. If I went to NYU, I wouldn’t need the food plan I woulg just get all of my meals there”.</p>