For just another week, I’ll have all my kids home, and then my daughter will go back to Bison City, where she needs to run a study, gather data, and write a master’s thesis before the end of July. But in August, she’ll return to enter a PhD program at Snowstorm University.
Yes, my two oldest kids will both be attending grad school here in Snowstorm Region. They’ll be sharing an off-campus apartment with First Extra, whom we’ve known since he was a kid and who will also be going to grad school at Snowstorm University. “We can start having lunch together on Fridays!” I told them all when I heard the news. It’s going to be great to my daughter back in town.
When I ran into First Extra's parents at the grocery store last week, we reminisced about how it had been ten years since Boy in Black and First Extra had graduated from their little elementary school. "And now our kids are going to live together like one happy family," First Extra's Mother said, laughing.
We’ll have a bunch of family members attending Snowstorm University at the undergraduate level: Shaggy Hair Boy, of course, and Blonde Niece, and Skater Boy, whom we’ve known since he was tiny, will begin their sophomore year. Drama Niece, my brother’s daughter, will come from Camera City to attend Snowstorm University, the first she’s lived here. She’s already a fan of the basketball team, so we figure she’ll adjust pretty quickly.
“We’re going to have five grandchildren at Snowstorm University,” my mother said when she heard the news. She’ll see them all pretty often: no hungry student would ever turn down one of my mother’s homecooked meals. Shaggy Hair Boy already goes over to his grandparents’ house once a week to record music with his grandfather and eat lunch.
“You can’t keep us here forever, you know,” my daughter warned me last fall, as she was looking at PhD programs. And yes, I know that parenting is all about letting go. But even so, I’m thrilled right now at the choices my kids have made: they’ll be here in town for now. I’m going to enjoy that while it lasts.
