Wabash College- https://www.wabash.edu I did not know much about Wabash until I accepted this role. The best part of my job- meeting and engaging with Denison parents. They are really great people. Yes there are a few parents way over-reacting out there but every town, school, team, show has them. I'm understanding more of the "why" on that by the way....the intentions are there. I am so pleased I was able to travel to Indianapolis and meet one on one with a parent on the board of Wabash- he compared his and his daughter and son's schools. There was a match and I listened. Denison plays Wabash in many sports- I took notice. (They joined the NCAC in 1998 by the way) When we set out on the college search with Clare, making Peter come along on many. Clare found her school- Wooster is a great fit. I saw her on Tuesday for dental procedure process step (all is great thank you Dr. Jump) she is so happy, would not stay for dinner- just wanted to get home. I thought Wooster was Peter's school- he went for basketball camp and loved it. Peter's search led to Indiana not Michigan- a small school there I thought would be great.
I'm not going to recount the whole journey to Friday and Crawfordsville but I will make some observations.
First- thank you to all supporting and loving Peter. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, Joe, friends, friends parents, teachers- sooooo many teachers, administrators, Denison colleagues, neighbors...it is much more than a village- it is an extended family- multiple- circles overlapping and loving- figure eights galore!
Next- It started with a tour. Joe took Peter to see three schools when we realized we needed to kick the search into 4th gear! It was a great tour and he ranked it first. That meant an overnight. I took him for the overnight program the end of September- that meant skipping Clare's Black and Gold weekend. Who wanted kids so close together (18 months) me. We came back and processed what we had discovered, what Peter thought with Joe on Sunday night. Wabash was the fit for learning, growing, developing and furthering his education. He articulated this so well. BUT he didn't think he had time to get the ED ap completed- we encouraged him to try. Thanks to his Wabash counselor, his guidance counselor, his devoted teachers and mentors he made it happen. One step at a time we told him, have faith (when he texted me (eek from school) should apply early action to other schools.) I also asked more questions - no school is perfect and parents have important roles, roles that shift as we move into these years!
There is so much more to say and share. I'm listening to
The Stressed Years of Their Lives" Anthony L. Rostain and B. Janet Hibbs more on this in future posts and conversations. It scares me deeply. It is sooo good. Were our parents scared when sending us off- they should have been? I'm going to talk to my parents about this over the holiday. I will focus on the positive, the happy, be in the moment. Peter is doing great with his senior year- honor roll, we love his teachers and classes and support. He is growing, developing, maturing. He still does silly things like drive to OSU to watch game day and can't find parking and comes home. He is happy, we are happy. We love being a family of four and supporting Clare at Wooster. We can't wait for her to be home on Tuesday and THANKSGIVING to kick-in to full gear!!! His search has him led him to a beautiful, small liberal art school int he Midwest with red and white as their colors, incredible alumni/family network and pride, and so much more. We will learn and grow as parents as we continue down the path in the college years in our life on Newark-Granville Road. Thank you for traveling with me and us and together!
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