Skip to main content

Beginnings and Endings by Stephanie Julian

This past August was a big month for my two sons.And for me.

For the past year, my oldest son, AstroGuy, commuted to Penn State Berks Campus for his freshman year. As he did all through high school, he'd come into my home office when he got home from class and tell me about his day. We expected him to spend two years at Berks but AstroGuy is an astrophysics major. Berks Campus didn't have the courses he needed to pursue his degree. (Quite frankly, his dad and I don't actually know what astrophysics is. We believe it has something to do with stars. And physics. We think.)

We found out in late April that he needed to transfer to main campus in August. To say we were at loose ends is an understatement. He had nowhere to live and the dorms were not an option. We had to find an apartment. But at State College, almost every apartment in town is rented by the previous October. As I frantically searched Craigslist and the internet, AstroGuy dealt with having his first full-time job while trying to get the classes he needed approved by the college.With only weeks to spare, we found an apartment, he got the classes and, three weeks ago, I left my baby at State College. I cried for more than an hour on the way home.

A week later, BabyBoy started his senior year in high school. While we knew that AstroGuy was going to college, BabyBoy has made no bones about the fact that college is not for him. For the past two years, he's attended the culinary program at the vocational technical school and his dad and I hope that when he graduates, he'll continue his education at a culinary school. He says he enjoys it. I have never seen him cook anything other than eggs.

On his first day, his dad took a picture of BabyBoy and me just before he walked out the door. He looked like he was going to jail. I had a grin a mile wide.

Comments

  1. Steph, I'm grinning with memories! Good luck to both Astro and Baby! But most of all to you for all the changes going on in your world.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's never easy. My oldest daughter was to stay at our nearby Penn State campus for 2 years and then main. But she moved out after the first year to be with her boyfriend. I wanted her to wait one more year but nooo...it would take too long to say all the ups and downs and back and forths. My youngest went to a community college for 3 yrs and then moved away for another 3 to attend Edinboro. They are both nearby now but moves are in their futures (sigh).

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment