Momservation: We have entered the years where your college kid now knows “Studying at the library” was actually code for “$1 Pitcher Night at Key Largo.”
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Crack open the lid of Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Fudge Brownie—Baby Girl is going to college!
Okay, well, she has completed all her applications and submitted them, and we don’t know which college she’s going to yet…but still a time to rejoice with ice cream!
We’ve reached the final leg of the Child Rearing Years with applying for college signaling the Bell Lap.
We’ve got one finisher already celebrating up in Boise who you would think has just won the Olympic Decathlon. Our oldest has literally been waving from a float in a parade (for Homecoming) and we’ve seen so many women-draped pictures of him at parties that his grandpa has wondered aloud, “Is he majoring in Girls?”
And now I have Baby Girl sprinting to the finish line.
She CANNOT wait to go to college. At this point, I don’t think she cares which one, although one with a beach nearby would just be the gold medal around her neck.
About a month ago we took her to a Cal football game at UC Berkeley. She loved the Big Game experience, but the fraternity row with their pre-game parties raging with all types of attractive co-eds had her at “Taco Tuesday.” As soon as she got home she wrote not one BUT two UC application essays.
The next weekend we went to Boise for Family Weekend and she stayed in the dorms with her brother. After they dropped us off at the hotel each night to “Tuck the parents into bed” Baby Girl got the college version of night life. I don’t think it included a tour of the library.
She promptly came home and in seemingly two clicks, applied to Boise State and University of Hawaii, Monoa.
Two weekends ago she went and visited friends and her cousin going to colleges in San Diego. There were SnapChats of her on the beach, in the dorms, at apartment “kickbacks,” and generally not missing being home with her parents in the least.
Her CSU applications were sent before she had even finished dumping the sand out of her travel bag.
The last leg of the College Application 4×4 was finishing her last two essays and having her school counselor look over the application. When the opening day of UC submission came and went on November 1 without the big finish I thought maybe Baby Girl had finally hit the wall.
But then her brother, who has no classes on Fridays, texted her last Thursday:
IT’S THE WEEKEND!!
She finished her essays.
Another text on Tuesday:
COLLEGE SURE IS HARD! GOT WINE WEDNESDAYS TOMORROW, A FRATERNITY/SORORITY ICE SKATING SOCIAL ON THURSDAY, AND A FOOTBALL PRE-GAME PARTY, TAILGATER & GAME ON FRIDAY!
The last of her applications were submitted that night.
So Baby Girl is going to college and we can thank (I think?) her brother for giving her the second wind to finish strong.
The dreaded college application process is completed. Now we just wait to see what school is going to officially make me and Hubby Empty Nesters. *Sniff*
But there’s no tears from Baby Girl. Uh uh.
She sees that red tape marking the finishing line of a stellar prep performance. And though she has some preferences for which college is holding it, at this point she just wants to break through it and start the celebration.
I just think we may have two different ideas of what that would look like:
Me
Baby Girl
#YoHoYoHoACollegeLifeForMe #CollegeAppsDone #Grown&Flown