EDITORIAL – This last weekend over 1000 college students moved into Fresno State’s Student Housing. Furniture, refrigerators and boxes were trucked into the dorm area and many students began their first adventures away from their family homes. One of those students was my oldest daughter.
At Fresno State, dorm life comes in many different configurations. While around 600 students will live in the traditional dorms with communal restrooms, 400 or so students will experience dorm life in one, two or three-bedroom suite-style dorms with up to six other students. In my daughter’s suite, she shares a two-bedroom suite with five other girls who came to Fresno from all over the state.
Six girls sharing one restroom? I think they are all going to learn a new word, compromise. I, on the other hand, will have to learn another word, space. While she is only about 25 minutes away, ‘Dad’ is going to have to learn this is her journey and not mine. That is going to be the hardest part of all of this. For eighteen years I have been my daughter’s protector. According to my wife, that is not my job anymore.
My wife sometimes says other funny things like this but I know she is partially right. During the move-in day, Fresno State Student Housing staff put on a parents workshop. “Letting go” played a major part in the theme of the presentation. Apparently, I can’t solve problems for her anymore. This is something she has to learn to do herself. My wife says I can still give advice, but get this, I am supposed to wait until my daughter asks for it. I told you, she comes up with funny things all the time.
I have been able to meet several of the professors in the Fresno State Math Department my daughter will be working with over the next four years. I’ve also met many of the staff members in the student housing. I am quite impressed with how much I can see they also care about my kid. If there is a problem at school, she has an excellent support group around her right there on campus. And I know if she really needs me, she can always dial my phone number. But right now all I can think about is that it has been 27 hours and she hasn’t called or texted it.
On Wednesday the school’s 109th academic year will begin for all of the estimated 24 thousand students at Fresno State. So expect traffic to be a problem around the campus during the morning hours. If you happen to be anywhere on the campus and you see a cute little blonde girl on a purple scooter around the science buildings, make sure you tell her to call her Daddy. He’s anxiously waiting for that call.
MORE PHOTOS AT FACEBOOK.COM/BIGVALLEYNEWS
All Photos by Jack W Porter, Jr.
