I’ve Seen That College Enough.
Shane is a senior in high school and we are in the midst of college visit season. He’s filled out the vast majority of his applications already, but because of the pandemic he’s visited a lot of empty campuses. The current season gives him a chance to make up for lost time.
Fortunately, because his mother is insane, Shane has been looking at colleges since he was in 7th grade – and more seriously since his freshman year of high school. So he is waaaaay ahead of his peers with regard to visits.
This means that we were fairly focused on which campuses to visit this fall. He’s already looked at two local colleges, one in Ohio and two in New York. This coming weekend, he was scheduled to look at one in Virginia – again – but the college was considering canceling the Open House.
“I think I’ve seen that college enough,” Shane said.
“So you don’t want to go back?” I asked.
“Not really,” he said.
Discussing it a bit more, he reminded me that he had already visited informally once – during a pre-pandemic evening, when Shane played ping pong with his grandfather in the campus game room.
Over the course of several months, Shane did a number of Zoom sessions with the college.
As soon as in-person tours opened up, we traveled to Virginia and Shane did a mid-pandemic tour of a mostly empty campus. He had a one-on-one visit with a student and a conversation with his admissions officer.
Last week, Shane met with that same admissions counselor when she visited his high school. Shane has even already applied to the college. There just isn’t that much more he needs to do.
With all this in mind, we decided to forego the trip this weekend – leaving Shane with a wide-open weekend for the first time in almost a month.
We have additional trips, and more colleges, scheduled. We are looking forward to Open Houses and tours. We are thrilled that – even though we are all masked indoors – we get a chance to wander on campuses that last year forced us to drive through with our windows closed.
Half the fun for me, though, is planning the trips. I am a little nuts that way. I have been planning college road trips since Dylan was in eighth grade – seven years ago.
A few days ago I planned a trip for my friend and her son, even though they didn’t ask me to do so – and they certainly didn’t want my advice or a full trip schedule. It’s just that I love planning the trips so much, I couldn’t control myself. I planned a whole two-day trip (with a possible third-day extension) including tours, open houses, and drive-through visits … all for someone else’s son.
In other words, I am really enjoying the planning – but I am just as happy that we’re doing nothing this weekend, even though I planned the whole trip. I’m almost as happy canceling the trip as I was when I originally planned it!
What does that say about me?
I wonder.