College Life

I can't believe that when Carson returns to school next week (this week is his spring break), he will only have 6 weeks of school left. It doesn't seem like it was all that long ago when we were having serious arguments discussions about living in the dorms at NIC. I wanted him to have some "away from home" experience, to feel connected to his college classmates, and learn how to live with other people. He wanted to commute daily (the college is only 20 miles from our house) so he could continue in his little cocoon of home comfort. Despite Carson's protests, his dad and I signed him up to live in the dorms and haven't regretted that decision.

The first month was pretty rough as Carson was settling into college, dorm living and trying to make the wrestling team. But once the pressure of making the team was gone, things got much rosier. He started making friends with kids on the wrestling team, the girls across the hall in his dorm, etc. His friends quickly discovered that Carson doesn't drink or smoke pot, so he became the designated driver at many parties. Do I wish that wasn't part of his college experience? Yeah, I kinda do. Not because I'm worried about him drinking or smoking pot (he is pretty strong in his convictions about not participating in those vices), but he goes to college in North Idaho for crap's sake. I worry about those parties getting out of control and inebriated people who might have weapons. He, of course, thinks I'm overreacting and he's totally safe. Whatever, he's an 18-year old kid who doesn't have a whole lot of life experience behind him.

Other things I worry about? Oh, the minor fact that he doesn't seem to have any clear direction on a future career path. He is taking mostly general studies classes which I guess is fine for the first year of school. My biggest gripe is that he plans on spending 3 years at a two-year junior college. If it weren't on our dime, I wouldn't care quite as much. On a positive note, his grades are much better than they were in high school and a better reflection of what he is capable of doing.

Now, the real reason I started this blog post was to say that along with the friends on the wrestling team and the girls across the hall, he has made a special friend. She actually doesn't attend NIC yet, but she will be there next year. She is friends with the girls across the hall from Carson and they introduced them when Avery was up for a soccer recruiting trip. Carson insists that they are just friends, and yes they are friends, but he has invested quite a bit of time in developing the friendship. I mean a lot of talk time. That's impressive for a boy who is, in general, a man of few words and is pretty picky with whom he will use up his word quotient.

He was even brave enough to bring her home to meet Dave and me. Of course, he planned it so that the visit wouldn't be long and he had a perfect exit strategy....he had to grab a few things from the house so he brought her along. Once the items were collected and we chatted for maybe 5 minutes, he said they had to get going because he had borrowed the car from a friend and needed to get it back to her. Since this was the first girl that he had ever brought home, I, of course, wanted a picture. I told Katelyn about Avery and should couldn't believe Carson was bringing her home so the picture was going to be proof. Carson didn't want the picture, but Avery was all for it. So I got the best picture I could with a non-cooperative Carson (who later complained about the goofiness of the picture when I sent it to him).
Like I said the visit was brief, but from what we could see in that 10-15 minute visit, she seemed like a nice girl...laid back personality, able to joke around, and she is shorter than me :). I viewed that last point as a bonus.

Overall, I would say that so far this has been a pretty successful first year at college. He has 6 more weeks before it officially ends, but he is staying on track with completing coursework and doing well on his tests. It's been fun to watch him grow up some this year (notwithstanding some of the "dumb college kid" antics he has pulled).