Back In The Day................

It's been a rollercoaster week. I avoided any tears at the end as daughter and I managed to get into an argument at "goodbye time." I wanted to take a few photos of her on campus and she refused. Actually, she threw a minor hissy fit, so I put away the camera, gave her a quick hug and said, "ok, goodbye!" Dad was much more teary-eyed, but is probably grateful for less estrogen in the house.

She's been there for five days now and is having a fantastic time. Let's hope she continues to like it once classes start Monday. While attending parent orientation earlier this week, I discovered some interesting differences between college life today and when I was a college student (way back in the early 80's.........)

Orientation - My daughter has been orienting to college life for five full days. It's been a non-stop party, for the most part. I got a half-day orientation that consisted of a campus tour and getting my photo ID......woohoo!

Director of Student Retention - Yup, someone is actually employed to keep the freshmen happy so no one drops out. There's free tutoring up the wazoo too. Maybe this just happens at small colleges? At my 20,000 student university, no one gave a hoot if someone didn't return the next semester! You were just a social security number.

Service Learning - This was a foreign term to me. Nowadays, the kids have to volunteer. My daughter spent five hours Friday at a nursing home, helping the elderly with their exercise therapy. She especially enjoyed "Dorothy's" potty mouth on the bike, so it was not a boring activity for her. Her junior year, she has to do a three credit "multi-cultural" volunteer experience. I, on the other hand, was a product of the Big 80's/Ronald Reagan years. We didn't do anything without expecting a paycheck in return. And we didn't choose majors without checking potential salary earnings first.

Semester in a Box - Give them your credit card number and your schedule and they pack up your books in a big box and have it waiting for you when you check into your dorm! Can you imagine that kind of service? Gone are the days of trying to decipher the difference between course number 342/section 09 and course number 324/section 09 while squeezing between book stacks four feet deep and the other 19,999 people trying to get their books. And don't even remind me about the lines at the cash registers.

The Boys/Men - Facial hair is apparently back in style. I'd say 75% of the boys had it in some shape or form. It makes them look a lot older than they actually are. I was even having trouble distinguishing between the students and the dads (some of those kids are big boys!). Thinking back, I don't remember any guys I knew having facial hair. Must have been the Rob Lowe influence.

Tattoos & Man Bags - Not that they go together, but they were in abundance at every college campus I visited over the past year. And both were non-existent when I was a co-ed, unless someone had done time in the Navy first OR was gay.

Cigarettes - The tide has turned on this one! It is rare to see anyone smoking now (or at least they aren't doing it publicly). I'd say more than half my acquaintances were either regular smokers or drinking smokers where the pitcher of beer goes hand-in-hand with the cigarette pack. Then again, I was at the tail end of the 3.2 beer generation, so we weren't hiding our drinking either! Anyone for a Little King's Cream Ale?

***No, that's not a photo of me at the top, but the girl on the right does resemble my former 80's self.