More tidbits of (future) academia...and whatnot...

Cast your memory back with me, if you will, to those wonderful byegone days of...2017...when Derek was scrambling to compile and submit all of his college applications before the Early Action deadlines in October and November. Despite a bit of unwise procrastinating that led to some near misses early in the game, and no small amount of frustration with the classic task known to High School Seniors everywhere as "writing a &#%$ personal essay", you'll recall that it all did get done on time. And then--wonder of wonders--we were totally shocked...and spoiled...by hearing back from two universities within a matter of weeks, rather than the expected months of delay.

And then...after all the initial excitement and hubbub, the whole process came to a screeching halt, and we entered the extended Waiting Period...which manages to be both tense ("I wonder when we'll find out? I hope he gets accepted!") and boring ("It's been soooo long! Can't they just make up their minds, already?"). As the weeks passed, we came to the realization that the rest of his chosen colleges take their sweet time reviewing materials, making their selections, and notifying families. So, we resigned ourselves to the inevitable, tried to exercise patience, kept our fingers crossed, and bided our time.

However, once the holidays were over, and the calendar flipped to January, we knew that several institutions' predetermined Decision Days were finally approaching. James Madison University, for example, promised to inform applicants about their status by the middle of the month. That's why, when I went away to Charleston with my mom friends during MLK weekend, Derek was under strict orders to text me immediately if he received communications of any kind from JMU while I was gone. And so...I got a text while out shopping with the ladies, consisting of a screenshot from Derek's laptop, showing the message "Congratulations, you're in!"

I'm not gonna lie--I might have squealed a little bit in the middle of the store. And jumped up and down a few times. Okay, and gotten just a tad sniffly. After all, this was the other bit of news we were most anticipating, since Derek considers South Carolina and JMU his front-runners, in terms of places he'd most like to spend his next four years. And how was the potential college dude feeling about all of this? His next text, a minute later, perfectly summed it up: "I'm done for the year". Um...buddy? About that final semester of High School? Ya know, they can actually rescind your acceptance, if you don't keep those grades up, so let's not quit just yet, 'kay? Thanks...

Well, that was undoubtedly thrilling, but there were still several schools yet to weigh in on his applications. When I mentioned this to Derek, though, he shook his head and admitted, "I don't really care about any of the others at this point." "But...but...what about UNC?" I protested. He gave me a side-eye and replied, "Honestly, I'll be kind of upset if I get in...because you guys (meaning Husband and me, of course) will want me to still consider it...and I just don't want to go there." He explained to me a while ago that although he loves Chapel Hill--the town AND the campus--he would prefer not to attend school "in his own backyard"...or as he succinctly explained it, "I'd like to actually go away to college!"

And frankly, we all knew this might be a moot point anyway, since there was no guarantee he'd even make the cut, at the highly competitive and selective local university. So when I started seeing Facebook posts about friends' kids who'd been accepted, I prodded Derek to check his own account and get the scoop. Aaaaannnd, it was no surprise that he'd been "deferred", pending further review, submission of mid-year grades, and blah blah blah. In Derek's mind, this chapter of the saga is now firmly closed....but we'll see if I can convince him to at least send along the later information...just to...I don't know...finish the job?...or whatever. (Yes, that's Type-A Mother talking...so what?)

Finally, one other contender delivered their verdict, when the envelope from Penn State arrived in the mailbox. And, in my opinion, they win the cuteness award (if there is such a thing, in the serious realm of higher education). You see, it's a PSU "thing" for fans at football games to start chanting "We Are", which prompts the rest of the stadium to respond "Penn State". To take it even further, you pretty much can say the words "We Are" to a current student, random fan on the street, or alumni, anywhere, at any time, in any context, and they'll enthusiastically finish the sentence for you. (I speak from experience, so you can trust me that it works. Go ahead and try it--it's pretty amusing!) So the package had the obligatory Congratulations splashed across the front, but the catchy declaration on the back added "You Are...Penn State". Nicely done, Nittany Lions...even if Derek's come to the realization that you're just too darn far away to make it work for us...

So there you have it: the official scorecard now stands at 4-0-1, a very respectable record, I must say. Technically, there are two more universities still to make their decisions known...but I don't think they're going to factor into Derek's preferred destination for the Fall of 2018. For now, he wants to revisit his two favorites one more time, to reacquaint himself with the campuses and do a head-to-head comparison, so we've scheduled a couple of road trips in the next few months to do just that. Then...I feel like there's one more thing I may be forgetting...what could that be...oh, yeah: we nail down the critical details of "how the heck to PAY for all of this", and add that into the equation...and then bada bing, bada boom, we'll have it all figured out! Yeeeaaah...feel free to stay tuned, but you might not wanna hold your breath, 'cuz this is still gonna take a while!