Parents of the Class of 2019

[yeahdisney]

Design mom. DD has an internship for this summer in Chicago with a construction firm. We are from Illinois.

We looked at apartments last week, she did decide to room with my friend up there. And we are so thankful for her.

Her drive is one hour, from home it would of been prob over 1.5 hours.

Last year her internship was cancelled due to COVID. For that one she had lined up- a summer room, with one of the Chicago universities.

 

[mrs. magoo]

Mine has been home for 2 weeks. She struggled socially this year. She is on the spectrum but usually she is able to make connections. This year was hard. She also just found out her lacrosse coach was fired so that places added stress. She compares her college experience to her siblings and if often disappointed but they did not live through a pandemic while attending college. Surprisingly she put herself out there and is working for a tree trimming company for a month until her parks and rec job opens up. I am very proud of her she has her struggles but then surprises me with little victories.

We just got an email about the fall semester and her university is planning for things to go back to normal no masks or limits on gatherings. They are required to be fully vaccinated by August 1st. She has her second shot next Friday.

 

[laughinplace199]

DS has been home for a week now. Next week he starts his summer job doing customer service/administrative stuff for a solar company (he's an environmental studies major). Despite the pandemic, he had a great sophomore year. He's kind of a quiet kid and we were thrilled when he joined the improv club last year. This year, they couldn't do improv at first (could only have one person on stage at a time), so some of the improv kids tried stand up...including DS! He was pretty good for a first timer, but I just love that he took a chance and pushed himself to do something very outside his comfort zone!

 

[bjscheel]

DS has been home for a week now. Next week he starts his summer job doing customer service/administrative stuff for a solar company (he's an environmental studies major). Despite the pandemic, he had a great sophomore year. He's kind of a quiet kid and we were thrilled when he joined the improv club last year. This year, they couldn't do improv at first (could only have one person on stage at a time), so some of the improv kids tried stand up...including DS! He was pretty good for a first timer, but I just love that he took a chance and pushed himself to do something very outside his comfort zone!

Awesome! DD is secretary of the improv club, which she was happy about because then she has an excuse to not get on stage- she's supposed to take pictures and notes. She is a theatre kid but not so much an improv one. Her friends are in it though.

This summer is set for work, but we already started looking for ideas for her official internship required in spring or summer 2023. She's in parks & rec management, wanting to get more on the tourism side, so we looked at some seasonal resort jobs in cool places. She loves the mountains. They are mostly housekeeping/food service, but there are some that are more internship level. Might be something to consider for Summer 2022 too, though she's also thinking of trying to get in with a city parks & rec department. Then she will have tried most aspects of the field (already done Chamber of Commerce, camps, and conservation).

 

[TB'sWidow]

Dd is home and had her interview for an internship with one of our local tv stations and they accepted her into the summer internship! She is over the moon excited it’s not paid but the value of the experience for her journalism path is beyond measure!

 

[Eureka]

Dd is home and had her interview for an internship with one of our local tv stations and they accepted her into the summer internship! She is over the moon excited it’s not paid but the value of the experience for her journalism path is beyond measure!

Definitely great to get the experience. We told DS to not write off any internship opportunity bc of it being unpaid. He is fortunate in that he does not NEED the money this summer like some people might. That said, he’s pretty happy his is paid.

 

[bjscheel]

DD has been at camp for 2 days. I expect she'll make friends before long and that part will get better.

But she has two other issues I hope she can get resolved. This job is part of her Field Experience class so she also has to do online assignments. She's having trouble being allowed to use wifi- today they let her use a desktop at the office but her stuff is on her laptop and she doesn't know if she will be able to do homework during office hours once camps start. Cell service isn't good enough to hotspot.

And, she did CPR certification last fall for Americorps but the Red Cross site doesn't show her certificate. So she may have to do that again, which is fine but frustrating.

It's still hard to get unhappy calls!

 

[bjscheel]

Update, after the weekend friends have been made. Homework will be done on weekends either at her sister's apartment or on wifi found in the town- not ideal but workable. But we all feel a lot better now

 

[MerissaAndMomLoveDis]

I flew to California Friday night and drove back to Texas with my DD19. Got home earlier tonight. The good: she has gotten to be a better driver since having a car in California the last 5 months (lol), we really enjoyed each other’s company, yesterday we had fun as she made me a Spotify play list for when I was driving, the weather was clear and beautiful the entire way, and we did a quick detour thru Joshua Tree National Park—the best part of our road trip was going out at midnight on a moonless night and seeing the stars so bright it felt like you could touch them. (Joshua Tree is a designated Dark Skies park).

The bad: we started the trip on 30 minutes of sleep Friday night. She had not packed anything or taken anything to storage when I arrived Friday night, AND she had just finished a math test and still had to finish a paper due on Saturday, AND she had to be out of the dorm by 8:00 am Saturday, I seriously don’t understand why they do that (out by 8:00am the day after classes end) to the dorm residents. She had classes up til 5:00 Friday and then had to take a test and still had two papers with deadlines—would it kill them to let the stidents stay in the dorms until 5:00pm the day after the last class day??? We packed all night, took stuff to storage when it opened at 6:00am, and got the car packed with what was coming home, dorm room cleaned, and checked out by 8:00am. And started the all day drive on no sleep. After we took turns driving all day, she then had to finish the paper by midnight—she turned it in at 11:59pm. I really can’t fault her though because they shortened the quarters due to COVID this year to 10 weeks and eliminated finals week, yet many profs still crammed the same amount of work and tests in. It was a mess!!! Also, her dorm caught on fire on the fourth floor two weeks ago and her room had water damage on the first floor. After loosing a whole day due to the fire, she was moved temporarily to a new dorm then told a week later she had to fully move to the new dorms, which took part of another day. So I understood why everything was so thrown off for her finishing up the quarter.
I am so glad to be home!, and I am glad she is here! She is doing a remote fellowship, so she will be living at home this summer.

 

[Eureka]

I flew to California Friday night and drove back to Texas with my DD19. Got home earlier tonight. The good: she has gotten to be a better driver since having a car in California the last 5 months (lol), we really enjoyed each other’s company, yesterday we had fun as she made me a Spotify play list for when I was driving, the weather was clear and beautiful the entire way, and we did a quick detour thru Joshua Tree National Park—the best part of our road trip was going out at midnight on a moonless night and seeing the stars so bright it felt like you could touch them. (Joshua Tree is a designated Dark Skies park).

The bad: we started the trip on 30 minutes of sleep Friday night. She had not packed anything or taken anything to storage when I arrived Friday night, AND she had just finished a math test and still had to finish a paper due on Saturday, AND she had to be out of the dorm by 8:00 am Saturday, I seriously don’t understand why they do that (out by 8:00am the day after classes end) to the dorm residents. She had classes up til 5:00 Friday and then had to take a test and still had two papers with deadlines—would it kill them to let the stidents stay in the dorms until 5:00pm the day after the last class day??? We packed all night, took stuff to storage when it opened at 6:00am, and got the car packed with what was coming home, dorm room cleaned, and checked out by 8:00am. And started the all day drive on no sleep. After we took turns driving all day, she then had to finish the paper by midnight—she turned it in at 11:59pm. I really can’t fault her though because they shortened the quarters due to COVID this year to 10 weeks and eliminated finals week, yet many profs still crammed the same amount of work and tests in. It was a mess!!! Also, her dorm caught on fire on the fourth floor two weeks ago and her room had water damage on the first floor. After loosing a whole day due to the fire, she was moved temporarily to a new dorm then told a week later she had to fully move to the new dorms, which took part of another day. So I understood why everything was so thrown off for her finishing up the quarter.
I am so glad to be home!, and I am glad she is here! She is doing a remote fellowship, so she will be living at home this summer.

Wow, that is crazy. DS lives off campus now but the dorms stay open until I think the last day of finals.

 

[mjkacmom]

Wow, that is crazy. DS lives off campus now but the dorms stay open until I think the last day of finals.

At my daughter’s college students need to be out 24 hours after their last final, but they can ask for an extension.

 

[design_mom]

My son's dorm had a quick dorm closure, too. His last final was supposed to end at 3pm on Friday and the dorms closed at 7pm. They told kids "pack early." (His Friday final ended up being online so he came home before the final and took it from here... but it would have been a tight turnaround otherwise.) If you have extenuating circumstances, you can apply for an extension, but it has to be pre-approved and you're charged a nightly rate.

The school usually allows families of graduates to stay in the dorms during graduation weekend. (For a fee, of course... but I think that's the impetus for getting the current occupants out so quickly. The small college town does not have enough hotel space for a big event like that.)

 

[bjscheel]

Yikes that's crazy to throw them out so quick. I don't know what DD's school does as her only dorm year was freshman year and they closed for Covid.

I do know that a lot of the off campus leases, including hers, run 5/1-4/30 which is dumb because in a normal year finals run through the first week of May. We should avoid that problem with her graduating at semester- she'll definitely have an apartment through finals, though she'll have to worry about subleasing it for spring semester.

 

[yeahdisney]

Today DS did his last homework assignment for summer class. He had 6 assigned for the week. yuk. Final is tomorrow.

His college announced I think either last week or week before back to mask for classes. Everyone is to be vaccinated. I wonder if the over seas kids get to come back.

He discussed him going back- he is going. His dorm room has 4 individual rooms but there are only 3 guys in it this year.

He is low maintenance, so he won’t have a lot of stuff to move.

A high school classmate said he would like to room with him next year in an apartment, we have said yes for that.

He shared today he has the link to sign up for move in date. I looked in his med pack, nothing is expired. He only needed 2 new notebooks for classes to come. I had DD dig out her clip on lamp from her dorm for him to take and an extra multi plug in. And I located the fan remote. (Since that was a fast COVID depart- who knew what box we threw it in).

Good Luck to us all.

 

[bjscheel]

DD comes home late tomorrow night- will be done with her camp job. It's been a time, it was physically and mentally taxing with literally no free time, (and a couple of vehicle breakdowns that left her on the side of the road) but now that it's coming to an end she's really happy she did it. Or at least her Instagram post says so (but I could tell she's been a lot happier last few weeks). She toughed it out and learned a lot.

Sunday-Friday we go to our family camp and the Monday after she will head back to college. She's looking forward to being back.

 

[mjkacmom]

My daughter submitted her GRE’s to the 10 graduate programs she is applying to, has a few more essays to finish before submitting her applications. She enjoyed her summer working as a PT aid. She’s planning on a busy last year, captain of the club running sprinters, sorority representative, freshman mentor again, Irish dance club President, UDance something (big annual college fundraiser), still working at a pizzeria and the PT center. I’m so glad she’s staying in the same apartment, we have 2 college freshmen this year to move into dorms, she’ll just drive herself down in a couple of weeks. So far all of her classes are in person with a vaccine mandate.

 

[TB'sWidow]

Dd is completing her internship at our local tv station and it has been an exciting summer for her. Return to college is on August 18 since she will be an RA this year. She is very excited for this year to start. Good luck to everyone for this junior year

 

[design_mom]

I can't believe a new school year is ready to begin. DS moves into his apartment a week from Monday. He will be living with 3 other guys. The apartment is "furnished" but does not come with kitchen stuff (pots, pans, silverware, etc) or general stuff like TV for living room, vacuum cleaner, etc. I am trying to let DS and his friends arrange things, but I have a feeling they're going to be ill-equipped. I bought dishes, silverware, and glasses, measuring cups and serving/cooking utensils... and I know his freshman/sophomore roommate is bringing pots, pans, baking sheets (but I only know that because I know his mom). I have no idea what the other kids are bringing and it's stressing me out! I'm sure they'll work it out. DS isn't stressed about it.

DS is finishing up his internship... and they've asked him to stay on for the school year working a few hours a week remotely. I think he'll also be going back for winter break. (That one is in our home town.) He has his internship for next summer lined up too and that one is in Chicago. We took a weekend trip to see Chicago and think we might have found a place where he can live (crossing fingers they rent short-term to interns next year, too.) This year's internship also told him that they're interested in offering him a job after graduation -- so told him not to accept any offers from next summer's internship until he talks to them. Of course, a lot can happen in two years so I told him not to "count his chickens" but it would be awesome for him if he had multiple offers upon graduation.

The school announced yesterday that masks will be required indoors for everyone and DS is very upset. He's convinced that they're going to institute all sorts of lock-down measures as soon as the tuition deadline has passed. I hope they don't... but they were pretty locked down last year and DS still seemed to have a good year. I am reminding him of that. And he will be living off campus this year where there won't be QUITE as many restrictions (he won't have to wear a mask to go to the bathroom, kitchen, living room, etc.) He and his roommates are vaccinated and all avoided catching it last year, so hopefully they'll be OK this year, too.

 

[design_mom]

It's move-in day! This will be his first year living off campus. We managed to fit everything in the car (we bought a rooftop carrier to add some capacity). I really didn't expect to be able to fit it in one trip. His apartment is furnished, so that helps a lot but they still need to provide all of their own kitchen stuff, etc. It's raining, so that's not fun but I'm sure we'll manage.

 

[bjscheel]

DD is headed out today too. She has the same apartment as last year, so the big stuff stayed. She brought way too many clothes home but she really didn't know what she would need. It was a very full summer for her. Miraculously, she was able to fit everything including her bike and new tv into her Jeep Liberty so we don't need to go. She'll stop in town and meet me for lunch. She'll have help unloading and setting up from her friends.

She's ready to be back. She has an on-campus job interview tomorrow morning! Her roommate has had the same job so DD knows the boss is good and it sounds flexible. And it's related to her field of interest. Really hope she gets it! It's hard to find jobs in the small college town.