When you were a child, did you pour over Children’s Highlights when you paid a visit to the pediatrician? Remember “Goofus and Gallant”? Goofus did everything wrong, and Gallant did everything right. Well, when my daughter’s freshman year ended, and it was time to move her belongings from California back to Texas, we did everything the Goofus way.
I don’t even want to recall every single thing we did incorrectly. First of all, it didn’t occur to us that moving out of a dorm was a big deal. We had no idea that she needed parental help. What were we thinking???? We weren’t thinking that students move out the very second finals are over, and there is no time for pre-planning – so, everything is done in a panic.
The low point was when my daughter, laden down with a huge box to send home, accepted a ride from somebody she had never seen before in her life, and was dropped off at a post office – 5 miles away – that wasn’t open. There was the long line to return the dorm key, there were text books to resell to the bookstore, there were items to be left at the sorority house, there was an early afternoon plane to catch. It was utter chaos.
If you have an out-of-state daughter, here are the simple rules for moving her out of the dorm:
1) She can’t move out of the dorm by herself. Somebody in the family needs to fly out, rent a car, and assist.
2) Two words: storage unit. About March, make plans to rent a storage unit. Even the smallest storage unit can accommodate the mind-boggling amount of belongings of up to 3 sorority sisters…so the space can be shared and the cost can be divided.
3) When utter calm descends because her belongings are safely tucked into the storage unit, and you and she are dining at the most expensive and famous restaurant in town, and are spending the night at a cute bed and breakfast because your plane doesn’t take off until the next day, you will know you’ve made it into the Gallant zone.
When a family lives in Texas and the daughter attends school in California, there are challenges all over the place. Using the next several mini-blogs, I thought I’d present some obstacles parents face when a daughter attends an out-of-state college, and how we’ve coped.
