Mary Kay's Blog

Our first born and only son has now completed his first semester of college. Academically, he did very well. He managed to keep all his scholarships with quite a bit of breathing room. I don't think, in general, parents of boys can expect to know as much about what is going on in their students' lives as parents of girls. This was a pattern that emerged in high school, and it hasn't changed any in college. David is quite independent and was very "ready" to go off to college. Here are some things that he grasped early that I think made his first semester go smoothly:

• there is a direct correlation between going to class and doing well in the class. He got sick of people telling him that before he left for college, but fortunately, it must have had an impact because except for a few times when he was truely sick, he went to class (as far as I know . . .)
• professors really do see students during office hours. He was more than a little insulted and surprised by his first grade on an English paper, but he handled it appropriately and met with the professor one-on-one during her office hours to find out what she wanted. His grades steadily improved and she realized that he was a conscientious student.
• don't give up. A great number of students dropped his math class after the first test. It was the hardest test of the semester, in his opinion. Had they stuck in out, things would have gotten better, and easier.

What he may not have learned until too late is that you can't burn the candle at both ends and that your body tries to tell you when it needs more rest. The week of finals his finally threw in the towel, and by that final Thursday, he was really sick. He called after the last final to say he was headed home, but that he felt horrible. What do you say? What I said was, "Well, come on home, and I'll take care of you." Unfortunately, he was sicker than I realized - too sick to drive. He woke up as his head hit the steering wheel as his SUV bounced along the median of I40 about a half-hour west of Knoxville. Luckily, he managed to get control of the vehicle and neither he nor the car suffered any damage (yes, we said many prayers of thanksgiving). His father and I immediately took to the road to go get him. Strictly by coincidence, the transmission in the SUV decided to give out at the same time, so he wouldn't have made it past Cookeville anyway. Of course, there was a wreck on the interstate headed east on I40, and it took us twice as long as usual to get to him. He sat at a gas station, with a 103 degree fever, absolutely miserable, waiting for us. I took him straight to the doctor when we got home. Diagnosis? Mono. Christmas break, lots of rest and as much of my hovering as he could stand had him ready to return to school for second semester, but as I reminded him last night, "Take it easy. Your body still isn't functioning at 100 percent probably." We'll cross our fingers and hope he believes me.

He forgot to call when he got back to Knoxville from Christmas break. His father became frantic pretty quickly after the incident on the way home . . . He'd just gotten busy unloading the car and then had seen friends and gone out to eat. He was very apologetic when we reached him. Those are things are bound to happen, so get ready.

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