Animal House

When I took off back in October and went on blogging hiatus, quite a few things have happened. One of them was that the cheerleader was accepted into her first choice of colleges!!

In my ever changing moods, college seemed like something that would happen much later. In reality, college is happening, right now. Well, all of the work leading up to her actually leaving. But, when the ball dropped to welcome in 2011, my heart skipped a beat because this is now graduation year. College is our next stop.

She seemed to be so confident that she would be accepted that she decided against applying to any of the other colleges we had visited. So, she got her application in, her letters of recommendation, her trascripts and then we waited. A few weeks went by and then one late afternoon, I went to get the mail. I saw the letter from the university in the mailbox. The cheerleader was about to start football cheer practice for the afternoon but I was able to reach her on her cell phone. I told her the letter would be here, waiting. She asked me to open it and read it to her. She had all of her friends and cheerleaders around her and as I read the phrase...We are pleased to inform you...it was nothing but screams, squeals, yelling and tears. She was happy!!

Her choice of university just happens to be my university. So, not only am I a proud mom, I am also overjoyed and hopeful that she will have the same happy experience that I did at the same university. I like that I can mentally picture her future dorm. When she gives me her class schedule, I will know the path across campus she will take to each building. I will be able to "see" her at rush parties for sorority. I will know the football stadium where she will now be cheering on a new team as we bid her high school team, goodbye. I hope that at each turn, there will be a friend like V or V, S or S...some of my best pals in college.

When we attended our final campus visit for Spotlight Days, I told myself that I would not fall in love with the campus, all over again. But, standing on the campus streets, with the sun streaming through the fall leaves, soaking in all of the memories and richness of the history of the school, I looked over at the cheerleader's face. She was beaming with excitement. She and I both knew, at that moment in time, that she would be next to walk the campus beautiful.