The Beginning of the End

I started this blog two years ago as I watched my first child off to college. How could it be -- in Boston, on the search again, with son #2? Time flies.

Son #2 has no idea what he wants to do, or where he wants to go. The only thing he knows is he wants a city environment-- to me, the choices are simple-Boston or DC. He's not as self-motivated as son #1, so I chose the colleges. Northeastern (a tennis acquaintance's son attends), Emerson (a friend's daughter goes there - communications), and Suffolk U, just because its in Boston.

Boston was also a chance to visit Gary. I miss him so much and didn't get to see him when he was home for Columbus Day weekend (I was away). This was secretly a trip to visit Gary, eat clams, and get away.

I wanted Jake to have a goal in mind, to know he has to aim higher if he wants to get in to a good college. To have an SAT and GPA score he knows he needs to get. Most of all, I wanted him to hear about extra curricula activities colleges look for - the volunteering + clubs he doesn't have now.

We visited Northeastern first and fell in love with it. It is a five year program, students take 3 semesters off (totally off) to have a full time work experience. What a great idea. You can find out what you like, and don't like through this co-op semester. Northeastern was only a 15 minute walk from our hotel, near the Boston Symphony. What a great feeling, everyone we passed had a violin or some gigantic instrument on their back. Northeastern is a huge campus, all very contained within Boston. Unlike BU or NYU where you have school buildings and dorms interspersed within city buildings, NE is a full campus. GREAT. I want to go there. Median SAT scores are within Jake's reach. Only problem is the tuition is comparable to BU. Yikes!

We ate lunch at Qdoba - A Qdoba right on campus---definitely an incentive to go to NE. I felt like I was in college myself, surrounded by students and Professors, (you can tell by the way they dress) eating queso burritos.

We took a cab to Emerson which is a very small, communications focused school. The 2 tour guides were right out of dumb and dumber, or the two guys in the Wedding Crasher (Vince Vaughn + Owen Wilson)--but they gave a great overview of the school. One a journalism major, and the other a film major. To my shock, Jake told them he was interested in film when they went around the room introducing themselves.

If Jake ends up going to Emerson it will be for this reason: An eccentric professor named Pete gave a great sell. He talked about the hard work and sweat and pettiness you need to put up with in the film industry. How his students are allowed to go to meetings in Hollywood & have a seat at the table while LSU students are asked to get up and stand (you can do a semester in Hollywood). He begins his day at 6am which means you must be there at 5:45 or you'll be kicked out. He had the kids hold an Emmy and hold it high in the air with the Emerson pose---and told them this is how you hold the Emmy when you win it. WOW. He told parents kids are there just to extort money out of you and they must promise to give you their first two million (ok). He could have gone on forever, and we could have listened forever, but dumb and dumber had to go. He showed us a film a student had done---dubbed voice over a scene from the Bourne Identity (how did he know its one of my favorites?). The Prof had the presence of the guy in Silence of the Lambs (the Anthony Hopkins character) and scared the crap out of me. He talked in that low whisper voice, but really drew you in and held your interest. There wasn't a person (student or parent) who DIDN'T want to study film after that!

I arranged to have dinner with a high school friend I hadn't seen in 30 years-literally. We'd found each other on facebook just six months before the Hunter College HS reunion this June, which she couldn't attend. We met at her favorite Italian restaurant, she, her partner and my family. I wondered if it would be awkward, to meet with someone from my past, the excitement of an old schoolmate, a high school blip of a memory. I hoped my kids would be meeting now the same friends they'll reunite with in 30 years.

We kept smiling and reminiscing, and she said, "I haven't seen you since HS + now its funny to see you with grown sons". I thought, "I haven't seen you since HS + now its funny to see you with a lesbian partner" (of course I didn't say that). She was a brainiac in HS, the smartest girl in the class. A genius in math and Latin I especially remember. She'd changed her name to Sierra after she divorced and searched for a new beginning. I had visions of her being kidnapped by the Sierra Club and being forced to change her name + work in the wilderness, dressed as a hippie. I imagined her sitting in a tree for 2 months, protesting, so it wouldn't be chopped down by big business. Didn't know if it was nosy to ask why she'd changed her name, but I did. Renamed herself after the Sierra Madre mountains as a serene symbol of peace, and what she wanted to do, nothing to do with The Sierra Club.

Jake stayed in Gary's dorm for a night to experience college life. OMG what are they doing? Well he's in good hands with Gary, so nothing to worry about. Only Gary has changed his fb status to "in a relationship" & I press Jake for details. Yes, he met her, she's shorter than me and "ugly". There's no way I believed that. He also said Gary has another lunch date with another girl that week, so college life must be treating him well.

We spent a fortune that weekend in the hotel, eating out and going to our favorite Dim Sum place in Chinatown. All worth it for the time we spent together. Gary came to our hotel and they jumped on the beds and tried to trick David and I in to giving them back massages. In just a year and a half my baby will be gone and I have to open the door for him now. For David and I its the beginning of the end. Or is it?