She's A College Freshman!

So M and I went to her freshman orientation. In case you're not sure how it works, the day starts out predictably, with an hour long blah blah blah session on the importance of academics and maintaining school engagement and this is the best time of your life and work hard etc. Then after about an hour into it, they separate the students from the parents, forbidding each group to contact the others, i.e, no texting, phone calling, or other communication. Then they bring the students to an undisclosed location and continue the boredom with the parents. The best part of the day was seeing her dorm room - great view! And then seeing M at the end of the day all filled with excitement and anticipation. She got her ID (she looks darling) and her class schedule. On the car ride home she said, "I feel like a real college student now." She read out loud from a book she's reading for about the last hour of the trip then we chatted about her high school friends and how she managed through some difficult times with them. I am so proud of how she navigated through her relationships with her peers. She worked hard at being kind while pushing some of her friends to do better. She is going to be a great college student. As my friend L put it, "I can't wait to start missing her."