Good to hear that so many of our college kids are off to a good start! My daugther's had a great first semester with many high points and only a few negatives.
- No tears on my part, but
she had some trouble with the initial parting. We'd helped her move in, had gone out to lunch and to the grocery store . . . and when we came back to the dorm to drop her off, she bawled and refused to get out of the car. Upon returning home for visits, she cried briefly the first two times we returned her to school, and then that stopped. She LOVES school, but she doesn't like the moment when we part. I fully expect her to cry again when she moves out of the dorm in the spring.
- She was initially disappointed with her dorm assignment but ended up loving it. She's on a "wild floor", but she and her roommate are both very good at knowing when to join in and when to hit the library. It's a traditional dorm, and she says she's loved how easy it is to make friends and how convenient it is to . . . everything.
- She LOVES that she chose a football-loving school with a reputation for outrageous school spirit, and I think she's sad that spring semester doesn't offer any football games.
- They had wonderful "welcome to campus" activities for the freshmen. She was assigned to a small group headed by an older student mentor, who took them to various activities and helped them through first-time tasks (such as getting their books, going to the cafeteria for the first time). She has a great RA, who has helped her a couple times when she needed some guidance on how to manage campus life. In those first days, we talked almost every day, and she was constantly telling me, "They did _____ for the freshman to help us learn our way." She's planning to apply to be one of the helpers next year when she's a sophomore.
- Living with a girl she knew in high school, but NOT a best friend from high school has turned out to be a great choice. No bad surprises, no nervousness about whether they'd get along . . . but they also haven't tried to live in one another's back pockets.
- We LOVE that she goes to a school that includes textbook rental in the tuition. No surprises. She was OUTRAGED that she was required to buy a set of protective goggles for her Chem lab. She also things it's awful to have to put money into the washing machine. She's very stingy with her own money.
- Sometimes I talk or text with her 4-5 times in a day; other times we go 4-5 days without communication. I still feel very close to her, which is what I'd wanted. I know that when I need to talk to her, I can get ahold of her in a hurry, and that matters to me.
- I've dropped a little card (often with a pack of gum or a $5 movie gift card or Chickfillet gift card) in the mail every week, and she tells me how much she appreciates those.
- Twice I've bought her something from Amazon.com and had it mailed directly to her dorm room. Works GREAT and gets an item to her faster than I could buy it and mail it myself. I have her dorm address saved in
Amazon, and I can just click it when I want to make a purchase. I hadn't anticipated how nice that would be.
- One thing I didn't anticipate: About two weeks into the semester she developed a sinus infection. (SO MANY of her friends came down with strep throat or something else in those first weeks!) And although I'd talked to her about using the health center, even walked by it on one of our campus visits . . . she was hesitant to go. She called me, saying that she wasn't sure she was sick enough "to bother them". When I reminded her that we were paying for that service, she agreed to go
immediately -- and she said they took great care of her (without charge) and got her on some antibiotics (for only $5). She acknowledged later that she'd just been nervous about making the decision of whether to go. At home she'd driven herself to the doctor, paid with my credit card, gone to the pharmacy to fill her own prescription -- BUT it'd always been at my direction. I'd said, "Oh, I think this is bad enough to warrant a doctor visit." She became sick again towards the end of exam week, and -- sure enough -- she didn't hesitate: She went straight to the health center. She learned her lesson.
- She ended up coming home about once a month, just as we had anticipated. It "felt right" to all parties involved. Her roommate came home much more often, and at first my girl felt herself a bit at loose ends with no roommate . . . but then, though she loves her roommate, she learned to enjoy having the room to herself.
- She ended the semester with a 3.95 GPA (B+ in Chem lab kept her from a perfect 4.0), though she really worked for it. I'm very proud of her. Her roommate also did very well (Chancellor's list!), and I'm glad that she's sharing a room with someone studious.
- Overall, she loved school. She's learned her way around now. She knows how to use the various campus services, which food places she likes best, and how to take care of herself in a campus environment. She says that the work was a big step up from high school, but she was up for the challenge. Again, I'm very proud of her.
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), but he seems happy to be home and to enjoy being around us. 
and said we'll probably hear a lot more from her next semester because she's "got this" now. The demands of demanding school schedule, work and a very active social life were a bit too much at first, but she's doing just fine now.
