The College Delivery!

Wow.  It's been a really long time since I've posted!  We've had big stuff going on.  Between seeing young friends of my 18 year old son off to college or other post high school opportunities, parting with them 'just for now', we've been getting our youngest ready for college.  We delivered him yesterday to the University of Hartford where he will begin his college career as an art major at the prestigious Hartford Art School.  He was so excited to be accepted into their program and we were happy for him as well.  It came down to this school and the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY which I wrote about last summer. 

Bringing your kid to college has changed a great deal since my husband and I attended college so many years ago!  The supply list seems to have grown exponentially.  I don't remember taking nearly as much as these kids take with them.  We actually saw parents delivering their precious cargo in Uhaul trucks!  At UHart they had teams of students meet arriving families and unloaded their vehicles and had all contents in the assigned dorm rooms in about 10 minutes.  Amazing.  Dorm rooms are different now.  We had forgotten a fan but not to worry...his room is air conditioned.  All the rooms are air conditioned.  That's different.  The rooms are still small but these kids are creative and they managed to figure out a way to squeeze all their junk in and still make it livable.  My son is living in something called a 'quad'.  It's two rooms with 2 students each.  There's a tiny hallway with a private bath.  That means only 4 kids share a bathroom.  That's a far cry from how things were at the UConn dorms back in the dark ages when my husband and I attended!  We were on large floors with super huge common bathrooms.  You had to get up early to stand in line for the showers.  Things have changed. 

Beecher Hall

Within about 15 minutes after we arrived, my son's new roommate and his family arrived.  It was not traumatic at all and I think they'll have no trouble acclimating to each other.  Many of the kids in his dorm are from all over the Northeast so he'll be exposed to a variety of pre-college life experiences.  The funny thing about his roommate...the local Chinese take-out place delivered their menus and a cute sign for their door.  Here's a pic I took.  You can't really see the names on the chopstick signs but it says 'Nicholas and Alexander'.  Those are the names of my sons.  So Alexander, whose roommate has been Nicholas all his life, still gets to live with a Nicholas!  Poetic justice served up again!

After we got my son moved in and the all important cable for the television hooked up, we took a walk around this beautiful campus and saw the set up for the outdoor BBQ dinner the freshman class would enjoy later that evening after their convocation.  This is such a different experience for us.  Our oldest son just graduated from Central CT State University.  This is a private college.  So different and thanks to the generous art merit scholarship my son received, he gets to experience this very different and special opportunity.  We left our son just before five o'clock for the drive back to Danbury.  No tears, no drama.  It was time.  We were all ready.  And - I swear - I just blinked my eyes.