Sometimes You Have to Smile...

Parents make me smile. Let me explain a few things first, BYU starts the new school year on Tuesday, this means that parents and their freshman children are flooding into campus. The dorms are filled with crammed minivans from all over the US, the Bookstore is jam packed with families and I am sure that the local Walmart and Target have huge lines. Now you need to know something about my dad. He has an amazing talent for talking with people, after 2 or 3 minutes talking to him people start to share their life story (seriously, grocery store clerks, telemarketers, etc), I don’t have quite the same talent but on occasion I meet people at the Bookstore that really want to “talk” (I have given career advice, marriage counseling, recipes, academic advisement etc). Now that you have some context let me explain why parents make me smile. Last night I was working at Customer Service at the Bookstore and a couple asked me to wrap a few things for them. I asked them why they were in Provo (they both had heavy New York accents) and they told me they were dropping their oldest daughter off at school. After they told me that the mom’s eyes flooded with tears and it took a few minutes for her to regain her composure. These parents went on to ask me how old I was, how far in school I was and how my mother reacted when I left for college (I left out the part about how I was such a brat on the ride to school that my mom probably wanted to toss me out somewhere near St. George). I listened as they told me all about their daughter and her plans. I reassured them that their daughter would be okay, that her roommates would be nice, that she can handle her classes, and that she would make new friends. No matter how many times I reassured them they were still worried, we talked for about 20 minutes about freshman life, the freshman wards, and classes and in the end the mother thanked me for “my words” and managed a tiny smile. I am sure that in 25 years or so I will be that mother that is so worried about dropping my college freshman off, and I hope that an upperclassman reassures me that it really isn’t that bad, that my child will survive, and even more than that, that I will survive the drive home. So to all you parents out there who have freshman (there aren’t any of you that read this blog), I promise your children will be okay and I promise you can do this, you survived a teenager you can handle this too. For the rest of you stay tuned for more about the start of school!