Accepted (Part II)

With Emily's college decision reached and us being satisfied that we investigated and gave it our all to find the best university for Emily.  That FDU has the small class sizes & resources that will give Emily what it is she needs in order to be a success as a person, not to mention the chance to become what she's always wanted to be, a writer.   We can live with that, I'm not sure if she had taken the easier route of Community college, we would have been as hopeful for her future.  I think at a community college she could have become a #. We are hoping she'll be "accepted" at FDU for who she is, especially in her chosen major,  a community of like-minded writer types who will hopefully come to have Emily's back as a member of the same tribe.  What an amazing thing it would be for our daughter to be INCLUDED by others for who she absolutely is.   That's all I've ever wanted.  It's important that I share the next tidbit with you because it's one of those moments that feels like it never happens.  We often tease in our house that if it wasn't for bad luck, we'd have no luck at all.  Just the other day for instance after paying over $3000 to get our car fixed that we would have for one day & get a flat tire, which ends up costing us over $100 to get fixed?  Why? Well simply put it seems...  because that's our luck. I could give another 50 stories fairly easily with similar tales but why bother depressing myself like that. the next story is mostly an exception to the rule. It involves Emily's birthday gift, it seems sometimes that we get Emily "fine" presents, but it had been a while since we had blown her sock off with one.  Well... this year we all but knew we had a real winner of a present. You see one day Brian was on twitter and Emily had retweeted about a book signing that Geddy Lee was doing at a bookstore in North Jersey.  Anyway..... Brian saw it & was like WOW... he picks me up at my store after work and I'm like... WOAH, we gotta do it!! This is perfect.  Now in case you're reading this and are not really sure who Geddy Lee is?  Well.. he's the lead singer of RUSH.  If you know anything about RUSH then you are aware RUSH no longer performs.  So... this was HUGE!! It was a ONE day only kind of thing, a once in a lifetime opportunity I mean this is a Canadian band who no longer tours, when would she ever get this chance again. SO WE JUMPED on it, we ordered it right there in the car in the parking lot of my store.  For the next couple of days, Brian & I were on a high... knowing that we nailed this birthday present.  The only even lil' hiccup was that Emily would have to wait almost a month to meet him BUT that would just make it that much more special... SOUNDS good BUT then one night in the middle of the night, I woke up in a panic?  It dawns on me that the WINTER Concert is sometime in the middle of December, but it couldn't be the same day could it?  Can you feel the bad luck a comin'?  YUP, you guessed it, it was the exact day as her winter concert.  Now missing out on the concert would have been a bummer BUT it was clear as days to us that meeting Geddy far outweighed missing the winter concert. When her birthday rolls around this was her reaction:

So she was going to see Geddy Lee, no ifs ands or buts about it. BUT... i know I said no BUTS but after Emily tells the teacher about getting the chance to meet Geddy Lee, the teacher informs her that if she misses the winter concert, she'll all but fail her class because you see the winter concert is basically the grade for the class for that semester.   Brian called to plead with the teacher, only to be told well I wish there was something I could do BUT... it is what it is, I wouldn't be fair... blah blah blah.  We in theory agree with the teacher but come on... this is Emily's idol, this is RUSH, this is Geddy!! The teacher gives an inch well if Emily can get to the concert before the 2nd half when her "choir concert" plays she'll won't penalize her.  OK so when is that?   Well it should be around 7:00.  But the signing is at 5:30 IN North Jersey a good two hrs away.  HOW?  Is this going to be possible?  HOW? But one way or another Emily was seeing Geddy Lee!!! We had made up our minds, at all cost... Emily was going to meet GEDDY LEE!

Accepted (Part I)

I feel like every new post I write ... "It's been a while" and this one is no different.  I haven't really posted on here in a while, mostly the post I've done lately have just been a copy & pasting of stuff from my facebook page.  But this is a true and true blog post.... lol.  I have so many feelings this year at this moment, in it being Emily's senior year and all.  Went fast... faster than I could have ever imagined.  Yet here it is and she's 18 & about to graduate.  So much is going on... Emily's in her school spring musical again this year,  It's called, "The Drowsy Chaperone" & there's been some drama with it this year. Mostly just differences because they have a new director and it feels different than past years but hopefully, all will be okay when it runs next week.  Each year there is usually a fundraiser & a spaghetti dinner but none of that this year.   Maybe it's because they've always done a Disney production & the play cost more to put on.  Paying Copyright and all, I guess.  What do I know?  This year her senior year I've wanted to just cherish every little moment and I've been working so much, that it's been really hard to do.  I feel a bit stunned it's already March. Like What? How? But... what are you going to do?  It's here.

Anyway... a lot of cool things have happened this year and writing them down on here will remind me perhaps that our family has had a great year thus far.  In October we visited Fairleigh Dickinson University & Em really REALLY liked it there.  It's a small school near NYC.  It has a really great Creative Writing program and that being what Emily wants to do, has always wanted to do, it was one of the first things that attracted her/us to the school.  In fact, it's #1 in our state.  We've visited two other times, one for "Instant Decision" day... she got ACCEPTED & with a $27,000 a year scholarship, a total of $108,000 if she maintains a 3.0 GPA or higher! We are so proud.   The "official" letter came in February.   The 3rd visit was on March 2nd for a Creative writing workshop.  It was like an explore your major day.  So freshmen who already were aware of what they would be majoring in, could meet some of their professors, for Emily's group, they had to bring in an original one-page fiction short story, or poem and share it with others and get feedback from it in a group setting. They shared the stories with each other. Very cool.  Now, all that sounds great,  except the visit on March 2nd seemed so unorganized. The other two visits were good but this one was a tad chaotic.   We actually arrived on time but when we got to the security gate they told us the wrong information as for where it was taking place & then it took like 45 minutes and two other wrong places before she finally got to the right location of the workshop.  So she missed a few people reading their stories/poems. Em has been working on a novel called, "Forget 55" which is about, believe it or not "Birds" in a post-apocalyptic time period, so she shared a page from that.   While she was in the workshop,  we were planning on driving around to see the surrounding areas around the university but because of the delay decided to just wait on the campus. Now don't get me wrong, it wasn't just three visits and we were like this is it!  The idea of Emily going to college is terrifying.  Is she ready?  She still has a lot to learn. BUT I imagine in many ways that will be where she'll learn it.  BUT.... we wondered and wondered and wondered what the right thing to do would be.  We knew that Emily was smart enough to attend school but still worried if she was capable of handling the other aspects of being away from home.  With Emily's Autism Spectrum Diagnosis it's a bigger deal for Emily than it might be for another college freshman.   Up until we discovered Fairleigh Dickinson, we really thought that a community college was probably where she would be attending,  but seeing the school and the campus, it really felt "right".  The classes are probably smaller than her HS classes.  The students were so super nice, the staff & everyone.  It became an even clearer choice when she received such a high merit scholarship.  Without it, it would have been out of the financial question,  it's an expensive private college and we wouldn't have wanted to have Emily leave school with that much debt, especially considering she could possibly attend a community college for free under a state scholarship program.  SO... Fairleigh Dickinson became an option to really consider after that.  I have to say this though... we felt like the "poor" people there.  It's a little more affluent of an area than the one we are from, and everyone seemed to look & act the part.  It shouldn't matter but a flaw of mine is that I worry way more than I should about what other's think,... it somehow still felt awkward and uncomfortable for me.  But I'm not going there so it really only matters if Emily felt that way, she seemed not to.  She still loved it just as much! No matter what I'll probably still worry but we did seem to reach a compromise we could live with. Which was? Emily will take a gap year.  We explained to admissions how we weren't sure Emily was quite ready for college, we thought as a family it would be best for her to take a gap year off. SO she won't be attending school until September 2020.  We will do our very best in that year to get her more ready to attend.  More responsibility, more experiences, and just more time was needed for Emily & us too to feel ready for this.  I honestly believe this is for the best and since they have agreed that the gap year will not affect her scholarship, we are, albeit still apprehensive, at least way more comfortable with the decision, much more than having her attend right out of high school...