Don't tell Sarah something blog-related that you don't want everyone else to know.    I'm totally just kidding!  I told her the other night I just haven't been feeling to write anything.  I'm not sure what it is, but every time I would sit down to write I just couldn't.  I've been reading a ton of other blogs, mostly on parenting, spirituality and health, and sometimes it just gets to be too much.  There are SO many good things, I get overwhelmed.  And if you haven't had the experience yourself, I am here to say HOURS can be swallowed up peeking into other peoples' lives and trying to glean good things, and then in the end I've neglected the "real world" all around me. 

 

This past week I got to help Julie get ready for her first semester of college.  I helped her select a class schedule, get her books and find her classes on campus.  It was so much fun!  I had such a good experience in college, and have said many times that if I had no responsibilities (ha ha) and was financially independent I would probably go to school for the rest of my life.  I just love the process of learning as much as I loved the subjects I studied.  I had no idea when I started school here in Tennessee that I would study business.  Like most 18-year-olds I didn't know what I wanted to do when I grew up.  Two days before classes started I was debating over teaching, nutrition, and graphic design even!  My dad had some influence and told me to really think about a field where I could get a job, LOL!  I thought what the heck, I'll take some business courses.  The day before classes started I went down to register.  The only business class that was open and worked with my schedule of general ed classes was Accounting.  I heard a lot of people groaning over how hard it was, but it was my only option.  About two weeks into the course I realized I loved Accounting.  It had a mathematical logic that just clicked with my brain.  Since then, I've had a love-hate relationship with it.  I really do love being able to make sense of the numbers and help people understand the flow of their business, but with limitations I have chosen for my career, I've been in a fairly uncreative branch of Accounting.  It's hard to say if I would have REALLY chosen something different if I had it to do over again.  I would have loved to study Literature and have been a teacher, at least I think so.  But Accounting has been a blessing to our family.  It has allowed me to earn pretty good money at home with my kids.

 

Anyway, as Julie and I walked around campus I showed her where Amy, Desi and I used to park when we car-pooled together to school.  I showed her where Amy and I had to run from one building out in the boonies to another building for Biology.  We were always walking in right as class started and would have to sit in the back row next to the buckets of future dissecting projects, yuk!  The smell was horrible!  I showed her where we studied in the library and where I was sitting when Desi came in with her face beaming as she told me she just met a guy that would end up being her husband.  I went on and on about how "kids these days" have it so much easier than we did - LOL - because they didn't have to stand in a crowded hallway searching for classes on a mural-sized computer printout only to find the class you wanted was full by the time you got to the front of the line to register.  They point and click their registration on the Internet now.    I'm sure Julie felt like she was with Uncle Rico by the time we left.  I half-joking told her I was jealous of her, only because it was a really happy time in my life, even though it was also confusing and unstable.  I hope she has a good experience there too.  I told her that the perseverance and diligence she will develop is as important, if not more, than the specific subjects she studies.  Just getting Gateway to actually send her transcripts to the school should have earned her 3 credit hours!  I am very proud of her and excited for her moving into this next phase of her life.  Obviously it's easier when it's not your child, remember the sobbing I did sending Lydia to Kindergarten?  Oh my, maybe Julie will have some Uncle Rico stories to tell Lydia when she's helping her find the Mathematics building.