Every time I walk across campus, I see them. Prospective students and their parents checking out the campus. A variety of observations and curiosities invade my brain:
1. do they hear the tour guide? I'd be tuning out that shiney voice, too. Besides, most of that info is on the virtual tour they may have taken. To the tour guides, I would ask them to share something personal about the buildings they are passing.
2. What's in the plastic Lehigh bag? If it's full of brochures, are they really going to be read? I can see a future purge pile in their office the day after they return from leaving their precious cargo on campus.
3. How many campuses will they be visiting. Do they all blur together after 5?
4. Are they at all interested in the surrounding neighborhoods?
5. Are they freaking out about the costs of tuition+?
6. Are they running through various moments of their child's life? (first steps, first tooth loss, first day of kindergarten, driver's tests, high school graduation...)
7. Are they preparing for an empty nest?
8. Are they worried that they might come back after 4 years and THAT much tuition?
9. Are they falling back into their own college memories?
10. Are they worried their child will repeat the same mistakes they made-and not get off as easily as they did?
11. Are they the kind of parent with the Provost's number on speed dial in case their child doesn't get an internship?
12. Will they be proofing their child's research papers via email?
13. Is their child smart enough to block them from their Facebook page?
14. Will they really support their child in all of their major life decisions?
But the number one thought that always hits me:
How much of this will be me in 10 years?
*****
#32 of 90in90 for #LUBlogTribe
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