OFF TO ANOTHER YEAR OF COLLEGE

Our oldest daughter, Alexandra (Alex), is a student at Albright College in Reading, Pennsylvania. She is in her second year and is studying to be a teacher. Her school is about two to two and half hours away from our home. She is our second child but the first one to live away from home at school. Our son, Joseph (Joe) is in his third year at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, New Jersey and he commutes to school.  He is studying to criminology. 

We took Alex back to campus almost two weeks ago. She had to be at campus early as she has earned an Alternate RA (Resident Assistant) position and needed to be back on campus before the football players arrived and moved into the dorms to begin their practices and training.  That's two weeks sooner than she moved in last year and two weeks sooner than her friends will be arriving at campus. Classes do not begin until August 29th.

The dogs, Gunner and Beauregard, were not pleased about her leaving early. Gunner is very close to Alex and Beau, well Beau is Beau and he doesn't like his routine changed. Alex walks them if Joe is busy or not home. Gunner likes to try to crawl into bed with her in the morning. Beau likes to get extra treats from her throughout the day.

So she spent about a week or so sorting through all of her stuff, and they have a lot of stuff when they live in a dorm at school, trying to decide what to take and what to leave at home. As this is her second year, the decisions on what to take was easier than last year and with experience she left home things that she either didn't use at all last year or rarely used.  Her dorm room this year is set up differently than the one last year so that had to be taken into account as well.  The night before Alex was due to leave she decided on her last supper (at least at home that is) ravioli and garlic bread and afterwards we began the task of packing the van. Joey and Joe put the turtle (not sure if that's the correct name) on top of the van and then the very careful, as Joey is a bit of a perfectionist, packing of the van began. We made an assembly line from the house to the van in the driveway. Joey directed where things should be put, pulled things out to reorganize and reorganized again all the while asking "how much more". It took about an hour but we accomplished our mission. Joe wasn't scheduled to work the next day so this year, unlike last year, he would be coming with us to move Alex into the dorm. Two big strong men come in very handy while loading and unloading boxes and such. Poor Emma ended up having to sit in the third row seat in the van, in the middle, with boxes and such on either side of her. She was squished in but good but as I told her it was only on the way out! 

The trip out went great, made good time, no traffic. The dorm that she is in this semester, North, has it's own parking lot, far better than having to find a spot on the street as we had to do last year. We even got a parking spot right across from the entrance door and her room is just through the door to the right, no stairs, even better! We unloaded the van in record time and got her started as far as settling in. Made the bed and placed a few of the larger items where she wanted them. Got a look at the floor bathroom, which also contains the washer and dryer for her floor.  Everyone was hungry so we went to lunch and then came back to do a few more things before saying our good byes. 

Unfortunately my hopes of Alex having an easier adjustment to campus life this year were dashed. We hadn't gotten 20 miles from campus when the first text arrived on my phone. "Mommy I'm lonely". Oh boy, here we go!.  Her roommate, the RA, wouldn't be moving in till the next day as her internship wasn't completed yet. This meant that I left my girl all alone, no one else on the floor in her dorm, to spend her first night back at school all alone! She was literally the only person on the floor. Her safety was never a concern, the Public Safety at Albright is wonderful and the dorms and campus are very secure. The worry was my girl having too much time alone and therefore thinking far too much and getting sad. She texted Emma saying she wanted to come home. Emma told her to hang in and she'll do fine. Continuing the drive home was very hard, talk about Mother's Guilt, but I knew she'd be fine and would be able to handle this. She had made a commitment by taking the Alternate RA position and as such she had to see it through.

She doesn't have a lot to do as an alternate, she does attending the training but is basically on the fringe of the meeting and such. Alex isn't good being on the sidelines but if an RA position opens she needs to be trained and able to just step right into the role, so she has to go through this. As things start up on campus it will get easier and her friends coming back will help a lot as well.

Alex has also earned a position as a POP (Peer Orientation Person). These are students that act as guides, friends and encourage the new students. Think cheerleaders on sugar highs, that's a POP. She will have a few days of training and then the freshmen and transfer students arrive. Alex will then be very busy juggling her two roles and Alex being busy, busy, busy is a very good thing for my girl.

Just hope her classes go well and she does great as she did last year. Dean's List for Spring semester. Good luck to all the students going to college, whether living at a dorm or commuting. Enjoy this time, as it will go so quickly. Be safe, do well and remember to check in with your families, they miss you and love to hear from you.