This Was Not Shane’s Dream.
For those of you who have been urgently checking to see if I’ve written any new blog posts, I apologize. My focus has been elsewhere for quite some time and I had a hard time getting back to having my piddly on-page tantrums and wondering aloud about the meaning of life.
I have spent the better part of the past month with Shane, taking him on road trips to the last few colleges on his list. The college search was amazing. Shane looked at nearly a hundred campuses, took at least two dozen on-campus admissions sessions and campus tours (after which we stopped counting) – and did so many Zoom sessions with colleges that he was able to eliminate the need for campus visits to many places.
This was not Shane’s dream; it was mine. Shane and I both love hotels (which, in this pandemic era, is crazy) so he was willing to accompany me during every school break and on the weekends to see stuff. For years – and even during the pandemic – I researched colleges and offered suggestions and printed out statistics and student reviews. For those colleges that interested Shane, I planned trips in great detail, from hotels and nearby attractions to restaurant options for the towns through which we passed.
Shane went along with all of my silly whims and – while he complained like any normal teenager – he was an unbelievably pleasant passenger, even though it took me four years to figure out that sometimes, he just didn’t feel like talking. Those times were hard for me, but I also have memories of lots of music (all Shane’s choices) and some harrowing experiences that will be highlights in my memories. Best of all, I got to spend time with Shane that, otherwise, would have been time that he spent playing guitar or listening to podcasts or writing songs … which is what he did when we weren’t traveling.
Now that Shane has chosen a college, I have stories from every trip – some of which (like when the car careened off the road) have been detailed here. Since I still have no interest in thinking about life without Shane, I figured I could write about those trips, those experiences that I remember best – but not about the car. That is something I would rather forget, but is forever etched into my brain.
I will provide the one highlight, for those of you not on Facebook who were waiting to hear: Shane made the absolute perfect choice for his next four years. He will be attending Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. This is unbelievably exciting for all of us!
I considered closing my blog for good after telling whatever college visit stories I summon. But I realized: I have my entire life to chronicle, if I want. I have years and years of drunken tales from my own youth, and even more years of getting-sober tales. And since I am only writing for myself, I might just do that.