Megan's Journey

It is quickly coming to the time where Megan starts her true journey into adulthood. She's almost 20 years old, but she has largely been dependent on Angie and I for all those years. On the 20th of August she officially leaves for college, to explore the world of responsibility on her own.

Megan is really excited about going, and for good reason. This is a very exciting time. I've told her countless times that my college years were and continue to remain the best years of my life. I think that she will enjoy them too.

Personally I'm very excited for her. I feel myself getting wrapped up in all of her preparations. I can't go in a store without wanting buy something for her to take to college. Last night I went grocery shopping, just to pick up a few things for the house and ended up buying a bunch of groceries for Megan to take to school. I figured she could use them. I bought he microwavable macaroni and cheese, cans of soup, ramen noodles, microwave popcorn and microwavable fettucini alfredo. I wish I could have bought more, but I didn't want to go overboard. Besides, Angie wants to be involved in the buying process as well and she was at home.

A couple of weeks ago we went out on our anniversary and ended up buying her all kinds of stuff. We got her a nice refrigerator, a hot pot to heat up water or soup, an electric sandwich maker so she could cook grilled sandwiches in her dorm room, some dishware (including silverware) and a bunch of other little things.

I think this whole college thing is confusing her because we took her and Grace out to buy supplies for school and she just got frustrated. She doesn't know what to expect so she doesn't really kow what to take. It is actually pretty funny. She wasn't going to take her stereo and I asked her why? She really couldn't give me an answer. I told her that she could listen to music at college and she could take it with her, but frankly I don't think she really could picture having her most precious music with her. It's almost like she is packing to go on vacation, when in fact she's actually moving away. I can conceivably see her coming home a week after getting there just to get the stuff she figured she shouldn't take but now realizes she needs.

As far as prepping for classes go, I think she really has her work cut out for her. College is like a fulltime job. It really is something that should be spread out over the five weekdays with catchup time spent on the weekends. Not Megan, she is taking 5 classes but all of them are on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. She liked the idea of having a couple days off during the week. I told her that she has to be careful and not burn herself out because she will be spending all day on her "days off" studying. Five classes is a pretty decent class load and to have them all crammed into three days is quite a task. Oh well, time to let go and let her learn. It's funny, I will always contend that personal management was the most useful skill they teach you in college. I guess Megan is about to learn that first hand.

I haven't admitted this, but as happy as I am to see her go, I'm going to miss Megan. With her hours now I don't see her much, but for the most part she has always been good to have around. I think however that this is a tremendous opportunity for her, one that she will cherish. Besides that, I think it will teach her little sister a valuable lesson too. I want Gracie growing up wanting to push herself to higher degrees of learning. I think Megan will serve as a good example.

This is an exciting time. I will have the opportunity to live vicariously through Megan, and that is a good thing. I harken back to my college years and wish they would have never ended. It makes me happy that I had those days and that now my daughter will get to experience the same thing.