The College Decided to Delay.
Dylan has been home from college since March 5, when he flew home for spring break. No one expected him to stay until Christmas.
The first day of college classes is August 19. He was supposed to live in an apartment with three roommates, which scared me to death. No matter what precautions the college takes – and The Plan is quite extensive – there is nothing to ensure that your roommates will follow all the rules.
Dylan Facetimed all of his roommates in a group chat, and they all said, generally, yes, we’re going to follow all the rules. Dylan insisted that he wanted to go back, and in spite of our fears, Bill and I agreed: he’s an adult; he’s been responsible all summer. We expect him to be as responsible as humanly possible when he goes back in the fall.
We bought and packed all we could for his new apartment. Much of it is kitchen stuff, because we didn’t want him to share germs – or vice versa – with his roommates. But I overheard one roommate talking about the various pasta dishes he planned to cook, and I panicked a bit.
Dylan got an air filter last year because he has some respiratory issues. (Yes, he has respiratory issues and he was going back to school.) The air filter helped, but didn’t kill germs. So we invested in another air filter – in fact, two new air filters – at a high price tag. But with that price, we had some confidence that the far-UVC light was worth it. It’s supposed to kill germs in the air from coronavirus.
Then we bought the masks – dozens and dozens of masks – so that Dylan would always have a new mask at the ready. We made hotel reservations as move-in day quickly approached. We made plane reservations for his trip home at Thanksgiving, knowing we wouldn’t be able to ride in a car with him for two weeks after he left school.
And then, less than two weeks before Dylan’s first class, the college decided to delay the in-person opening of school. It was an all-too-familiar scene: they didn’t quite decide to close and they didn’t quite decide to stay open.
Classes still start on August 19, but in an online format only. And Dylan – who would be fine taking online classes, I’m sure – considered that he might actually want to do something different than what he’s been saying for the past five months.
So Dylan is in the process of finding out about his options for the fall semester – and it looks as though he’s going to be home with us, in some capacity, for at least a little while longer.