<p>A reader tried to PM me and my CC mail box had been full. I've now saved some messages to a file and there is room again, so whoever can send away.</p>
<p>I have messages going back to January, 2005. It was quite a stroll down memory lane, reading messages from parents and prospective students. LOL reading CarolynB when her daughter was just in the process of deciding upon Smith. So many names and stories emerging from the past.... </p>
<p>I hope that it's kinda like a coral reef, with some of the current generation continuing to stick around and become oldtimers in turn. If I seem unusually sentimental, I'm straining for equanimity in dealing with the fact that my 39th birthday is about to become of legal drinking age.... Here I'd just gotten used to buying D a drink when we were in restaurants....</p>
<p>Haha TD you and I have at least one thing in common…besides our affiliation with Smith. I reach that same milestone myself this year. Have a good one! ;)</p>
<p>TD, sorry for not picking up your thread till just now. As of this evening, we are finally fully functional after hurricane Irene with electricity, water, land line phone, cable and internet. I’ve never experienced such a complete and lengthy power outage before; just as we were seriously going into camping mode yesterday (with my sister and her family visiting and taking their first-year daughter to college!), we got the electricity and water back, and the rest tonight. Phew! </p>
<p>Anyway, I understand your sentimentality as I’m coming up on the same milestone in a matter of weeks. Happy B-day, TD and Bossf51, when it happens! Yeah, with our twins starting the second half their college careers, it’s amazing how the time flies, and our daughter will be gone at Oxford for six whole months starting in January! In February, I’m coming up on participating on CC for five years! TD, FYI, I only recently cleared my PM folder of your amusing anecdote of the two organized Smith seniors who were interested in making their marks on the campus. ;)</p>
<p>I just dropped off my daughter for her last year at Smith. I cannot believe how the time has flown by – it seems like only yesterday I was here, worried, and being thoroughly reassured and supported by you wonderful Smith devotees. I’ve never forgotten all the help and guidance I got from my CC friends. It’s been too long since I’ve stopped by! My second daughter is now applying to college. Nothing I learned first time around is applicable :)</p>
<p>My daughter’s experience at Smith has been a mixed bag. The rough patches might have happened anywhere. In some ways, I feel the atmosphere of the school encouraged traits I would have preferred to see minimized, for her sake. Given several highly troubling developments, it seems I was right when I felt she wasn’t ready to go away to college. In retrospect, I wish I had trusted my gut and kept her closer to home. We used to be so close – now we have almost no relationship at all. That’s not the fault of Smith, of course. I am hopeful, in time, things will improve. </p>
<p>Congratulations to all of your daughters who seem to be thriving and taking advantage of various spectacular opportunites! That’s wonderful to hear!!</p>
<p>I’m sorry to hear there were rough patches, and that your relationship doesn’t seem as strong as it once did. I think though, that feeling out the edges of a person’s new “adult to adult” relationship with their parents is always fraught with difficulty. It certainly was challenging for me and my parents, though more so for my Dad than my Mom. Once she’s out from under the day to day pressures of college (and off to the day to day pressures of the workplace!), you might find that she’s a little more relaxed and mature, and your relationship may well mend. I wish you all the best.</p>
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