The past four and a half years have been about getting exactly where Brainy Bird is today.
Today, we move Brainy Bird into his dorm at the University of South Carolina. He will be in the Honors dorm, one of the newest dorms on campus. The building has its own cafeteria, computer labs, and it even has classrooms. Brainy Bird has a Monday, Wednesday, Friday class in one of these classrooms.
Over the next four years, Brainy Bird plans to pursue a degree in computer science, complete the honors requirements for graduation with honors, and pursue a second degree or multiple minors. While he is 100% set on the computer science degree, he has not yet completely decided what his second degree and/or minors will be. No surprise, he is leaning towards math. Brainy Bird’s computer science degree is already 53% complete thanks to his AP course work in high school, so he wants to fill out the four years of college with additional fields of study.
But first! We move him into the dorm. Our move in time is at 1 PM this afternoon. It is only 8 AM, so we have some time to sleep in, get organized, and eat a nice brunch before the big move in. Brainy Bird and I stayed up late last night eating pizza, chatting, and watching TV. I woke up at my usual early morning time and got ready for the day, and he remains asleep at the moment. I am currently sitting in the hotel lobby, enjoying the free coffee.
I am sitting in the hotel lobby trying to think of anything else that I need to do or can do to make our move go smoothly this afternoon. This is the first time that I have ever moved a child into a dorm. I am not sure what I should be doing. So far, all I have done is drive the car. Brainy Bird and his dad handled all of the packing.
I fully appreciate that I could do absolutely nothing, and Brainy Bird would take care of everything. Truthfully, that is our normal dynamic. However, I want to “mommy” him one more time like I did before he became the independent young man that he is today.
I remember him being upstairs playing, and I would want his company while I cooked dinner. I would yell upstairs, “Attention all cheese mice! Cheese is now being served in the kitchen!” Brainy Bird would come barreling down the stairs. He would sit excitedly at the kitchen island snacking on his cheese, while I cooked. Those days are more than a decade ago, a distant memory.
I should not have put on mascara this morning.
The big move-in is just four and a half hours away. I remember when we first toured colleges, and the big move-in day was about four and a half years away. The past four and a half years have been about getting exactly where Brainy Bird is today. Today is a day to reflect and celebrate, and today is a day of the start of a new journey for Brainy Bird. It can pour down rain, and be a complete disaster, and I will still love every minute of this day as I know how badly Brainy Bird wanted this, and I know how hard he worked to get here.
I am going to grab another cup of free coffee and make myself useful by looking for a place to take Brainy Bird for brunch while I wait for him to wake up and get ready for his big day.