Making the Break

Steve and I stayed in the Blue Heron Inn in Rigby (about 12 miles south of Rexburg) for our second and third night in Idaho. We found the Blue Heron Inn last year when we took Emilie up to BYU-I for EFY. We fell into the bed exhausted on Thursday night, after a long day of ever-ending activity, including having made an initial trip to Wal-Mart in Idaho Falls after dinner to pick up needed items for a girl's dorm room and a projected three month separation, having received word from the Gillans was that the shelves were bare in Rexburg.

The next morning, while we enjoyed our delicious and beautifully presented breakfast, we met the other couples who had stayed the night at the Blue Heron. All of them, with the exception of one couple who had a freshman boy and us (woohoo! go Emilie!!), had heard from their distraught daughters at least once or more throughout the night. One freshman coed had spent the night with her mother at the inn instead of on campus; and one other mother had spent the entire night trying to calm her daughter down via phone calls and text-messaging. We felt great! All of that independence Emilie had exhibited throughout the past year seemed to be paying off with a solid self-adjustment into her new surroundings and role as college freshman.

We had made arrangements to meet Emilie at her dorm before her 11:30AM Get Connected activity. When we arrived, her I-team leader was visiting with her, and we realized that Em had to scoot off a little earlier than we had thought. It was then that we realized how grateful we were of the result of my goofed double-booking: I had accidentally booked reservations for us at the Blue Heron and at the VeeBar in Laramie, WY for Friday night. I had forgotten about the second night of Blue Heron reservations when I found out that there were no activities planned for parents on Friday. Instead I had focused on not want to think about the separation anxiety and sorrow of leaving Emilie, so I was trying to create an anticipation for Friday night by booking a reservation at the VeeBar in Laramie, WY . The Blue Heron had a firm seven day cancellation policy, however the VeeBar was gracious to waive their 48-hour cancellation policy, requesting only that we stay there with them again on a subsequent trip (absolutely!). Steve and I settled into the realization that my goof was going to require two 14 hour driving days home, instead of three 8-9 hour driving days. And now we were pleased that we didn't have to rush off after a too-quick good-bye with Emilie.

We caught the Gillans as they were leaving and they conceded to go for a smoothie before they left. We kept them until nearly 2PM. We did our best to stay clear of the girls, but they toured right past us with their I-teams as part of their mandatory orientation activities. Nicole bounded over to us, while Emilie was deeply engaged in a conversation with a boy...already! Subsequently, we heard that he had pretty much just latched onto her; and she was being her gracious, southern belle self in amusing him with her attention. Meanwhile, we parents just buzzed with conversation until we finally had to let the Gillans leave in order to get back to Boise in time for a high school football game.

Steve and I toured the campus afterward, starting with the Chemistry building, where the only professor we saw after wondering throughout the whole building was Steve's BYU-I counterpart: computational, thermodynamic, spectroscopy, infrared, who-did-whatever. Steve made another new friend! The good news is that this professor was looking for possible summer internships to which he could steer his students and Steve needs summer interns...the bad news is that this bloke is shy of half our age, was raised in Rexburg, and will most like retire his career teaching at BYU-I; so there goes one of Steve's retirement options: transferring to BYU-I to teach after concluding his tenure at Ole Miss. He so desperately wants to move to Idaho.

We toured a few other buildings on campus, ones I believed Emilie would be using so that I could get a visual and feel of what her surroundings will be when I start missing her and thinking about what she's doing every hour of the days that go by...

No...., I feel a lot better about leaving her at BYU-I than at any other school, which salves any wounds that distance creates. I have such confidence in her opportunity to receive an excellent education that won't cause her to daily have to sacrifice her standards, safety, and dignity on every level: academic requirements, social and physical surroundings; as well as the moral caliber of the majority of individuals that will be a part of her everyday life for the next three to four years: the first years of her independence. Her other present alternative would be Ole Miss, where she can receive a good education; but it's a school whose prevailing student body has worked diligently throughout the years to achieve their current status as the #2 party school in the nation (Princeton Review, 2008). More than one student enthusiastically revealed to us when we arrived in Oxford, 20 years ago, that they were actually aspiring to reach the caliber of UVA. We thought at first it was the academic caliber to which they were aspiring; but we were quickly corrected, it was the "party school" title they coveted. At any rate, we are pleased with her choice and the confidence she expressed in fulfilling the privilege she received, and earned with scholarships to attend BYU-I. By the way, the #1 "Stone-Cold Sober School (Princeton Review, 2008) is BYU.

Finally the time came on Friday night for us to deliver the last cache of the of our five trips to Wal-Mart and K-mart (a list will be provided for futute freshman moms in a upcoming blog of all the detaily things we kept forgetting to get at the store), and to say farewell. Steve and I were confident, yet bracing ourselves for our own separation anxiety. We believed Emilie's wings were fully dry, strengthend, and ready for flight. We delivered the Schuletute I had prepared for her, and it was then Emilie that finally revealed that she had reached the proverbial "oh-no!" that every commitment provides to challenge one's cconfirmation of decision; which she handled with her typical approach: debate mode. We had our family moment; after which a stunned determination tempered any expected emotional build-up and twarted most of the tears; instead we expressed confident goodbyes with hugs and high hopes.