Empty Nest

Today we took my little brother up to school.

We joked that people would probably think that I was the freshman moving into the dorms, and we were kinda right.

As we were walking across the street from the car to the dorm, a group of guys drove by in a car and one shouted out the window:

"I'm gonna f*$@ your daughter."

We're not in Provo anymore...

It got me to thinking about when I went up to school over 9 years ago...

( I say over 9 years ago, since I went up to school 10 days after high school graduation in June for summer term)

I vividly recall leaving my parents in the parking structure of our hotel in Las Vegas and playing Dixie Chicks "Wide Open Space" as I drove away crying.

I drove the rest of the way by myself, because I wanted to have enough room for all my things, and thought 3 extra people in the car would have meant that my mom was going to have to ship things. And when you are moving 12 hours away from home and living on your own for the first time, you just really need to have your things. I don't think they understood/were really hurt I said they couldn't come, but I just wanted my things and I wanted to get settled on my own.

My mom asked me if I ever imagined the day when my brother would go to school, and I said yes, but I just thought I wouldn't be living here and would be married with 2 kids.

While I am glad that I am done with school, I have to admit that there are some days when I wish I could go back to that summer for just a day.

(There are plenty of days when I would go back to Junior/Senior year)

Everyone standing next to their respective roommate. I think we took the picture the first day that everyone was there.

?, married, married, SINGLE, married, married.....

Notice how there are tons of people outside and I already have my pajama bottoms on...

They were probably making ice cream sculptures or playing ultimate Frisbee... which means I probably had zero intention of coming outside but was convinced to do so.

Up at DT for some kind of small music gathering that some of the kids had put on there...

After summer term was over, we got 2 new roommates.

( And of course Jamie who had been there all along as an honorary member of Shipp 115)

College pranks....

Notice who is on the bottom of the totem pole... also notice who probably weighed the most and therefore had to be on the bottom...

First Sunday all going to church in September...

Horrible outfits all around...

We look like we are about 55 and about to attend Women's Conference or something...

The bane of my existence...

While I despised the cheesy activities and the "freshman boys", I loved most of those girls.

Some of my fondest memories from that first summer:

-I don't know how Joy put up with me keeping her up until 3 every night, and then went to early classes. We had so much fun. We jumped on our beds and got into water balloon fights with the boys across the way. I made up songs about boys that she was dating, and changed her screen saver to reflect said lyrics.

-Taking American Heritage and crying almost every class because they would talk about something patriotic or show a picture of Ronald Reagan. I loved that class and never missed it once... which if you know my attendance record later on in college, you would know that that was a huge thing.

-The wonderful afternoon thunderstorms that would roll in and make it so that Joy's tennis class was cancelled, which meant that we could hang out. I swear I wasn't needy.

-Eating at the Cougar Eat, and buying 1000 boxes of cereal at the Creamery and going through them once a week.

-Making diagrams on the wall at 2:30 am to show Joy how I didn't understand how some words you could put un- or ir- in front of and others you couldn't.

-Making signs for sloppy roommates that had pictures of Smokey the Bear and said things like "Only you can prevent dirty kitchens"

- Jamie coming back and regaling us in stories about the cheese-tastic lines boys would use on her on dates. "Oh baby..."

-Taking all my Abercrombie bags and writing things on them to make them appropriate to hang in our room...

Like having this guy say " Ere you left your room this morn', did you think to pray?"

Needless to say... I never forgot to say my prayers... as they usually included that guy in them.