I'm finally appreciated!

This is the moment I have waited for! I am finally appreciated! Last night Sean sent me a paper that he had written for a class, asking for input (the paper was due today). I edited the paper, primarily moving some paragraphs around, cutting some material out and adding transition statements, but not changing too much of the wording. Sean thought my version looked great. "So great, in fact, that it doesn't look like my work." One of his teachers said that he looks forward to seeing improvement over the year and if Sean took what I'd done, then "expectations regarding organization skills will be higher than my actual abilities." He decided to turn in his original paper. What he did ask me to do was to explain my revisions as that would benefit him more. Well, I spent over an hour doing that and sent him my comments. After a long day, I finally sat down to read email and haven't felt such gratitude from one of my children in a long time: (Sean's email) "Thank you very much. I'm rather more amazed than anything. Then again, I forget that it's You, the organization guru. And this is precisely what I need to learn. It's my guess that, having been under your wing, I never bothered or needed to organize myself. However, using your suggestions, and this environment, that can be readily changed."

Freethinkers?

A couple of days ago, Sean told me about his visit to a group of students who are thinking of forming a "freethinkers" group. He even videotaped (actually really just the audio) the meeting and put it on private videos on Youtube. I listened to a couple while doing other work. It was obvious that "freethinking" was code for "agnostic/atheistic/secular." It wasn't what Sean expected and he didn't feel quite welcome. He wasn't expecting it to be focused on being atheistic/agnostic. I think he was expecting more of a general discussion. A college. . .a time of discovery.

No need to lecture

I love it when my children FINALLY come to their own conclusions, conclusions I've been lecturing about for a long time. Lectures that fell on deaf ears!
Sean, in response to a "How's it Going?" email, talked about being "hit with readings due." Three books expected to be read in 3 days, and apparently none of the students knew what the schedule was. Hmmm.... And he admitted to wasting time on You Tube--please, no lecture. He said he was annoyed at the thought I might have lectured. Hah! You can leave your parents, but your parents (their little nagging voice in the back of your mind) never leave you!

More than just a field trip. . .

I just got done having a lengthy Instant Message chat with Sean about his UND ISP field trip to Medora. Although the group returned last night about 5 PM (6 PM was on the itinerary that Sean emailed me), I hadn't seen Sean on the computer ( he shows up on my AOL Buddy list), nor had he returned my emails and his phone was off. I just wanted to know that he was alive and not lying dead in a ravine or something. I guess it is a "mom thing." I'm not entirely sure of the purpose of the field trip. From my perspective, as Sean related experiences--it seemed more of a "bonding experience" with the other students, including "getting drunk" the first night (apparently some students had sneaked in alcohol), to being lost with a group on a mountside in the rain and crossing the "bridge of death." They even sang to "scare away mountain lions!" I do know they did hold a debate about government involvement in the wilderness. Sean's exact words were "Whether the government should help in relocating animals, make oil thingies to extract oil, limit access to national parks." Oil Thingies?

College Boy goes grocery shopping. . .

Next Tuesday AM, Sean is leaving on a 3-day field trip to Medora, ND with his ISP class. My biggest concern is that he actually makes the bus that morning. They leave promptly at 8 and if he misses the bus, he misses the 3-day field trip. Additionally, he is supposed to bring some food and water as only Tuesday night and Wednesday night meals are provided and there is no refrigeration or ability to cook in the park. I suggested he contact Grandpa Williams to take him to buy a few groceries. He did go grocery shopping today and bought water, potato salad, ice cream cheese sticks, cheezits and other bagged chips. He realized that he would have to eat the ice cream and potato salad before Tuesday, but he forgot that the cheese sticks wouldn't last past Tuesday without refrigeration. I also commented that it didn't sound like much food (never mind that it didn't sound very healthy, either!). He said he hoped it would be enough as it cost $40!! When you only have $100, $40 is a big bite. He wondered how I did it feeding a whole family. Yes, groceries are expensive! Welcome to the real world!

My son, the leader?

In a rather lengthy IM conversation and subsequent email, Sean described an experience in his ISP class (Integrated Studies Program--several classes are combined into one "big" class). They were given a research topic in class: "The government (state or federal) should not interfere with water issues by methods like creating dams, draining or relocating rivers, etc." Then, the class broke into small groups to discuss the topic, after which they were let loose in the library to do research. Some material had already been put out for them to look at--apparently copious, overwhelming amounts of material. Some kids just "gave up" because it was too overwhelming. Fortunately, Sean did not. In fact, after people had gathered material to write up, many were wondering how they were going to put it all together, working as a team. Sean suggested using the online "blackboard" to post the material and discuss it--a very well received idea. He also helped the other students come to a plan to summarize and polish the material with different people taking on different tasks. And, to my dismay, he is getting known for being a "know-it-all," which does give him ego strokes, but as his mother and former homeschooling teacher, I know he has huge gaps in knowledge. The day ended especially well as my father, who is in his last semester of teaching at UND, and my step-mother took Sean out to eat at a Chinese restaurant.

Instant Messaging and Meal Plans!

I'm very grateful for Instant Messaging! I think I am conversing more with my son now that he is away at college than when he lived at home. Tonight we had a very lengthy IM conversation on the Meal Plan he is using. He is on the 19 meal plan (3 meals M-F and 2 on Saturday, during specified meal zones), which includes $95 Dining dollars that can be used any time. Sean is finding it challenging to eat only during the meal zones. He is used to being able to graze whenever he wants. He would like to switch his meal plan to "unlimited" so that he can eat whenever he wants (about $130 more per semester with $130 dining dollars)--it is too late to do that for this semester, but we will consider it for next semester. However, I did encourage him to eat breakfast--there are so many choices! I actually showed him how to navigate to the menu for specific days for specific dining halls--a computer task he is more than capable of doing, if he only realized that he could! To me it would be such a luxury to show up for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner and not have to plan, buy, cook and clean. Just show up and select what I want to eat from many choices.