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We had kind of a rough summer before she went away to school. We’re a military family, so I understand the emotional cycle of deployment and I knew in my head that we were all so cranky to each other to make the process of separating easier. But I was sad to have her leave when we were at our worst to each other.
Daughter’s roommate had originally been planning to do recruitment but had changed her mind. And initially I was sorry that D wouldn’t have someone to get ready with, and an automatic person to walk to events with. But she found plenty of other people to hang out with. And at night, after an exhausting day of parties and outings with her Pi Chi group, she called me to talk through her day.
I wasn’t expecting that. When we would pick her up from camps or workshops, we’d run into other parents talking about how their child had texted or called them regularly to tell them all about things. And we’d be like – ‘well, we’re pretty sure our kid’s still here...’ And so much of the summer had been about making sure we knew that she could handle everything and did not need us! So I was hoping to get a few crumbs about how recruitment was going, but didn’t expect much.
So I really benefited from the no-roommate situation. I don’t think I would have gotten these calls if there had been another girl in the room to talk to! And I couldn’t be more grateful for how it worked out. I got to share something that was important to her.
And I mean it – learning the info on GC was a bonding experience for us too. I could never have just told her the GC ‘truths’ we learned. She needed to hear them from people who were not her mother! And just having researched and internalized what she thought was important made it possible for her to not take the process too personally. There were highs and lows but I think that she was able to keep her eyes on her goal and not freak out because of what she learned here. So thank you GC!
And her bid – was to the house that had been her favorite all week!
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