first year orientation at IU | Elizabeth Melton Parsons

Eric at IU

My son Eric has decided on Indiana University for his college because they offer the major in environmental science he wants. New student orientation was yesterday and today. A parent/family program runs concurrently, so my two sons and I got up at 4:00 AM yesterday and headed out. We had to be there at 9:00 AM for registration.

Not long after registering, they separated the families from the students and we went for our individual programs.We were put on a campus bus and taken to our first location. Newbies like me were thinking how easy a day it would be with being shuttled around on the bus. UH…no. That was the first and last ride of the day. After that it was walking and climbing, sitting through speeches, walking and climbing, sitting, more walking, more climbing and so on and on and on. The speeches were pretty boring. Well that’s not entirely true. They were VERY boring. I don’t think anyone actually fell asleep during the first few, but that would change.

I found some of the speeches informative and was happy to have the info. Most of it was just kind of silly and repetitive. One speaker and I won’t say who, must have said twenty five times that the biggest cause of failure for students was the abuse of alcohol and that we, as parents, should have the discussion with them on not drinking or over indulging. DUH…! My son is 18 and just graduated high school. I must have had this conversation with him a thousand times in the past four years and at least a hundred over the past few months. And since keeping his biggest scholarship requires that he not get into any trouble and that he doesn’t do any underage drinking, he gets it. I’m sure I wasn’t alone in having this conversation. There probably wasn’t a parent there who wasn’t thinking–DUH! Whether our children continue to avoid these problems, only time will tell. Eric has always been so serious, not a party animal. So we’ll see.

Hoagy Carmichael Landmark Sculpture

I did enjoy most of the slide shows, especially the ones on some of the more famous alumni, Hoagy Carmichael, Suzanne Collins, Kevin Cline, Lee Majors, Jane Pauly and others. By the time lunch rolled around, I was already getting pretty tired. Of course, that’s what usually happens when you’re up all night with stomach pain. I think it was nerves, but can’t imagine why. The only thing I was even remotely stressed about was getting Eric there on time. We’d never been there so there was the possibility of getting turned around or not being able to find the right building…ect. Poor Eric seemed fine and then all at once he asked us to stop the car so he could be sick out of the car and not in the car. 😦 He claims it was the McDonald’s breakfast sandwich. I say it was nerves. To the right is a sculpture of Hoagy Carmichael. Notice the flowers in his hand, they’re real. The first of twenty times we walked this way, there was a hydrangea flower in his hat. This time it’s a flower in his hand. Students I assume. It was cute.

The sculpture itself is amazingly lifelike in detail and very beautiful. As is the entire campus. It has a very relaxed and comfortable feel about it. It’s landscaped to have equal parts shade and sun, which is wonderful and has all these lovely little areas for quite study, reading or just contemplating the universe.

More Walking!

We were reunited with our students around 3:00 PM and had a little break before going to the next set of speeches together. Or at least about 75% went to the next session. The three of us ducked out and did what we’d been longing to do since we’d got there. Explore the campus together. Bad, I know, but we weren’t the only ones. We returned right as the session was ending and fell in line for more walking and climbing to to get to the last session before dinner. In the ladies room, I heard women talking about how bad that one had been and how they hoped the next one would be better. Hearing that I was truly glad we’d ducked out. The next one was better, after a speech from the bursar’s office, mostly about paying the bills, a professor gave her prospective. She was a great speaker and I enjoyed her program. But it ran longer than it was supposed to and looking around the audience, I noticed many of my fellow parents were sleeping. 🙂 There were evening activities planned, but after dinner, we left for home. Worn out but happy.

IU Art Museum

I decided to stay home and let my ex go with Eric today. The fun day with more free time to explore with your kid. I think they’re even supposed to tour a residence hall. Something I really wanted to do that and visit the museum and Lilly Library. Sometimes I’m so generous I can’t stand myself.