[late-ish August] Drop Katie off at college

We dropped Katie off at school for her sophomore year at UVM. Obviously not as significant of a family event as last year(her freshmen year), but still a thing. It’s very satisfying to see her excited to get back to college and back into all the stuff college kids do. She’s a very happy kid, easy going and easy to please. Very much like Mrs. G..

This year she’s in Harris Hall which is above the Harris-Millis cafeteria, the site of Phish’s first ever public gig, back in 1983. Pretty cool.

My advice to my students has always been:  go away to college if you can swing it financially.  The school should be 3+ hrs away from home - being 45 mins from home sounds like a good thing to a high school kid for the security blanket part of it, but trust me, it's a negative.  You need to be out there on your own in the world.  Pick a school that you are drawn to, that feels right for you.  Don't worry about ratings or class size or any of that jive.  For this is the place where you will grow into an adult - the biggest period of maturation happens during these years.  Recognize that.

And if you don't know what you want to major in, that's normal.  Don't worry, no one knows what the hell they want to do with their lives at 18 yrs old.  Figuring that out is part of the process.  I wish someone told me that when I was 18.

College kids sure have a lot of stuff these days

A mother’s love knows no bounds…and sometimes involves climbing up onto the top bunk and wrestling with the fitted sheet.

site of Phish's first ever gig.  Looked different back then.