{"id":11941,"date":"2018-11-08T16:38:05","date_gmt":"2018-11-08T22:38:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/?p=11941"},"modified":"2018-11-15T14:45:36","modified_gmt":"2018-11-15T20:45:36","slug":"an-ode-to-nancy-dear-parents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/2018\/11\/08\/an-ode-to-nancy-dear-parents\/","title":{"rendered":"An Ode to Nancy | Dear Parents"},"content":{"rendered":"

D<\/span>ear Parents of College Freshmen,<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve been waiting for this time of year all semester long. As you dropped your precious freshman off at Armstrong, Harbin, Cathcart or Sears Halls, you left wondering how they\u2019d ever learn to call this new place home, and you started a countdown on your phone, ticking down the days until you\u2019d see them again. Some of you cried as you pulled away from the dorm, and some of you beamed with happiness for the future of your child. It was a day full of emotion, to be sure.<\/p>\n

But now, they\u2019re coming home for Thanksgiving break. It\u2019ll be the first full week they\u2019ve been back home \u2014 although some of them dashed back earlier for a weekend of free laundry.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ll come bearing a basket full of weeks-old dirty laundry, and they\u2019ll come bearing bags under their eyes bigger than the duffles and suitcases they\u2019re carrying through your front door. It\u2019ll be a week of laundry, sleeping until 1 p.m. and buying shampoo, body wash, toothpaste, deodorant, shaving cream, mouthwash and whatever else because your freshman has been stretching the remainder of their toiletries in hopes you would buy them more when they return home. Of course you will; you\u2019re so happy they\u2019re home that you\u2019d do almost anything to shower them with love in the short one-week break.<\/p>\n

The countdown you set when you left campus on move-in day is nearing its end. You\u2019re so excited, and that\u2019s great! Your freshman is excited as well. But remember when you wondered how they would ever learn to call this place home, too? It happened quicker than anyone expected.<\/p>\n

When you left campus, they were on their own for the first time. I like to refer to this as the 24-hour phenomenon. In just a matter of 24 hours, your precious, sweet, beloved offspring finished packing their things, fell asleep in their bed (for the final time as a permanent member of your home), woke up the next morning, moved into a whole new world and suddenly were left to their own devices.<\/p>\n

In 24 short hours, their world \u2014 and yours too \u2014 was turned upside down. But they were then living next to hundreds of their peers who were in the same boat. They relied on one another to ease the transition and their closeted emotion. Because they were suddenly living life with people in the same rocking boat as them, the banded together.<\/p>\n

Banding together with new friends in a new place with nothing but the bright future within their reach, your freshman learned to call this place home quicker than anyone could have imagined. Armstrong Hall, despite it not resembling anything close to your suburban two-story craftsman, feels like an escape from class and a place in which \u2014 for whatever reason \u2014 yelling and making life-long memories happens best at 2 a.m. Cathcart Hall became the new downstairs den, where secrets were told and tears were shed about life\u2019s stresses and struggles.<\/p>\n

Your freshman is coming home for the first time all semester, but it doesn\u2019t feel like home to them anymore. Home is weird; home isn\u2019t where they grew up because they\u2019re not growing there anymore, and it doesn\u2019t feel right to call Harding home because it\u2019s not, well, home. But deep down, Harding feels like home now.<\/p>\n

You get it, too \u2014 whether you realize it or not. Your home isn\u2019t the same anymore since they\u2019ve been gone. You didn\u2019t realize how the void they left would be so vast and empty.<\/p>\n

This break might feel weird. Maybe your child has lost their southern accent or learned to say \u201cy\u2019all.\u201d They\u2019ll probably talk about social clubs, and you\u2019ll have no idea what they mean by \u201cbeaux and queens.\u201d You won\u2019t know their new best friends like you always have.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll want them to stay for longer than a week, but they\u2019ll be bursting at the seams to return back to their new \u201chome\u201d from the moment they step back through your front door.<\/p>\n

Cherish the week as you can and know the \u201chome\u201d they\u2019re excited to get back to is a place where they\u2019ve grown in love, self and faith. In this season of thankfulness, be thankful that your home isn\u2019t their home anymore, as hard as it might be.<\/p>\n

Kaleb Turner is the editor-in-chief for The Bison. He may be contacted at kturner3@harding.edu.<\/b><\/p>\n

Twitter: kalebaturner<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Parents of College Freshmen, You\u2019ve been waiting for this time of year all semester long. As you dropped your precious freshman off at Armstrong, Harbin, Cathcart or Sears Halls,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14705,"featured_media":11115,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[78,25],"tags":[549,551,550],"class_list":["post-11941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-opinions","tag-freshman","tag-home","tag-parents"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14705"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}