Mikayla and I had quite the weekend. I took Friday off to accompany her on the Honors at Houghton weekend. We both went into it not really knowing what to expect with great trepidation and anxiety. We left while it was still dark on Friday morning to make it to the college by 9 am. Naturally our first stop before heading out of town was Dunkin' for breakfast ;-)
We arrived pretty much right on time and got checked right in. We stood to the side waiting for everything to get started. Comparing our respective itineraries. We were together until lunch at which point she would be with the other prospective Science Honors students- and I would be with the other parents.
After the welcome our first stop was a "lecture" in the Science building for an overview of the Science Honors program. Up until this point we weren't really sure what it was all about. I kinda felt like I was listening to a foreign language for parts of it. But basically a group of 20-24ish students are chosen for this program. They then have a problem/project they work on and solve over the course of their first year. Previous years have studied alternative fuels and built go-carts. They have studied weather/climate change issues and done weather balloons. One year they built little submarines. Next year they are studying Biodiversity. In small groups they will plan and build a robot, which they will then take to Arizona during May Term to actually study animals in the dessert. Mikayla got really excited about the actual project. Environmental issues are one of her {many} passions.
After the science lecture we headed to Chapel. (This is like a mini church service). Which was great. The dean of the chapel spoke and was fantastic. I'm a little jealous she is going to be able to go to chapel a couple times a week. ;-)
At the close of Chapel we had to separate, Mik headed off with her group and as I walked out of the chapel following my group my sister happened to txt me. Buoying my spirits a bit.
I made it the parent's luncheon area. I even sat at a table with another couple instead of heading straight for an empty one. Soon another father and then a mother sat at the table, later we were joined by Mikayla's admissions counselor. I even engaged in a bit of small talk with the other parents at the table. Sadly- I may have picked the wrong table as all the other parents kids were trying for the other Honors program and when I sat back down after getting my lunch I heard the table behind me saying they were from Syracuse- it crossed my mind to turn around and say,
"Hey! Me too!" but of course I didn't.
As lunch began to wrap up I debated about what to do. We were told our afternoon schedule was optional. The thought of totally bailing on it was completely tempting. I could just hang out in the student center downstairs or better yet go to the hotel and check in and take a nap. :P But in the end I decided I was here- I may as well see what they wanted to tell me. So when the parents started collecting to leave for the next event, I followed. It was to be a panel of the some of the department heads to give an overview of the various departments and majors within the Honors program. When we got to the lecture hall there were some students there. I took a seat before I realized they were
our students- hearing a loud whispered
MOM!! I looked up and saw my daughter. She beckoned for me to come sit by her, which I happily did. We chatted about our lunches- both slightly awkward but we survived.
After this Mikayla again headed out with the students. I had a 45 minute break. At this point I did decide to go check into the Inn- to save us time later as we had another brief 45 minute break in which to change and get ready for the banquet. Turns out I am glad I went when I did as the manager on the motel was not always in the office. I had to call him and he came right over to check me in- I waited for 10 minutes or so for him to arrive. The motel itself was so tiny- more on that later.
Back on campus I checked out the library of course. My next two sessions also happened to be upstairs in the library building. One was a student life panel and the other was a Q&A with the dean of admissions. Both were quite interesting.
After that I found my girl and we headed to the inn to change for the banquet.
We were surprised by the transformation of the dining hall into an elegant banquet hall.
The food was beyond delicious!
Here is our room. It was cute, and it was clean. It was also sweltering. It was like walking into an indoor pool. I checked the thermostat and it read 77, it was set for 50. Hmmmm....I switched it to off, hoping it would cool before we returned after the banquet. It didn't in fact it was 78 degrees when we returned!
Here is the outside, the little parking lot held about three cars. We were surpirsed to see a 4th one squeezed in, in the morning.
Saturday morning we headed back to the college. Mikayla's first of two interviews was at 9 am. We were relieved they had a "waiting room" set up in the physics lab we had visited on Friday. Complete with coffee, water, tea and scones. I happily sat and waited for her, worked on my menu for Friday's up coming Pampered Chef party. After her interview, which went well, we took another stroll around campus. It was a completely gorgeous day, unseasonably warm and sunny. Mikayla discovered Houghton has several Poke stops. We sat in on another student panel before her 2nd interview, which also went quite well.
We then turned in our name tags in return for lunch vouchers for the dining hall. We visited the salad bar this time around. We had chicken Caesar salad and some kind of shrimp soup that was pretty tasty.
After lunch we visited the store to purchase her a Houghton College hoodie, drinks for the road and headed home.
It was an exhausting weekend, but overall we enjoyed it.
Continuing to pray that God will open the right doors and lead our girl on His path for her.
