<p>Welcome, proudmom,</p>
<p>Momjr,
Thats what my older s (who as GA2012mom said, is moving today 
) is doing-- selling almost everything and buying new when he gets across country. This company didnt give much for relo (enough to ship his car) so its cheaper to sell and replace than to ship it.</p>
<p>I also have a college 2012āer but she is graduating in December of 2012. She is taking the PCATās this summer to apply to Pharm.D programs (transfer into year 3 of 6 year program) for the Fall of 2013. She is a health science major but needed extra classes for the Pharmacy schools (2 semesters Organic Chem, 2 semesters Bio, Anatomy, Physio, etc) over the ones that she needed for her health science major. I think the 8 month break/gap between college and Pharm school will do her a world of good.</p>
<p>S2 recently found out he is required to do an internship to graduate. He and quite a few others were under the impression that it was optional. Since he has classes he needs lined up for Spring, he must now find an internship for summer. That means heāll need to spend Christmas break sending out internship apps. and beating the bushes for possibilities in our area. He is pretty bitter about the whole thing so Christmas may not be as happy and bright as I had hoped. The one good thing is that since all his coursework will be completed in May, he will be allowed to participate in graduation but just wonāt receive his diploma until he completes the internshipā¦just when you think you see the light at the end of the tunnelā¦</p>
<p>Congratulations to everyone for these important steps. S is still on the culinary school path. He only needs two more courses to graduate, so heās taking a light load next semester and will work more hours. Heās fortunate to be in a small restaurant where they have rewarded his energetic work with real cooking responsibilities. </p>
<p>I talked to an old friend with a 2012 son who now seems to be on the 5 1/2-year plan. He has struggled in college, and she is concerned and frustrated. I am counting my blessings. </p>
<p>Pacmom, a good friend of Sās had a similar misunderstanding and canāt graduate yet. Heās figured out a solution, but still wonāt graduate in May.</p>
<p>Jym, Iām sorry your son is moving so far away. This letting go stuff is hard.</p>
<p>Packmom: I understand why your son is so bitter about the internship. It does seem like colleges could do a better job of advising kids on graduation requirements. Maybe his luck will change and that internship will lead to a permanent job.</p>
<p>Proudmom: The grad program your D is applying to sounds really interesting. Good luck to her.</p>
<p>Geezermom: Iām glad that youāre counting your blessings. A friendās son has also chosen to start culinary school after a few years of college.</p>
<p>Having moved from photojournalism, to political science, to culinary school, I figure that my son will be a civically engaged, well-informed chef who takes great photographs of his creations. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>We visited D over Thanksgiving break. She and her friends cringed when I mentioned the word āgraduation,ā so it was clearly an off limits topic. I canāt believe people have dinner reservations! Iām not sure where or how long weāre staying yet. We want to be able to help her move, but she isnāt sure where she will be moving to.</p>
<p>She had an interview for Teach for America last week. Sheās thinking this would be a good option for her, but she wonāt know if sheās accepted until mid January.</p>
<p>S1 doesnāt drive, so I suspect we will either ship some things, or rent a van and then buy most things when he gets there. If his GF gets here at the same time, we may turn it into a cross-country drive, since she is from overseas and has not seen much of the US beyond a few major cities.</p>
<p>geezermom, I bet your S would do a bang-up job with a culinary blog!</p>
<p>Congrats and good luck on grad schools/fellowships/TFA apps! Thought we would be on that path this year, but S feels his job will get him more cutting edge experience than grad school right now (though he will likely take some grad courses while heās working and then decide on the PhD later).</p>
<p>We made reservations a couple of months ago (wanted to stay on campus), but dinner reservations? Nah.</p>
<p>The necessity of making reservations probably depends upon the size of the community surrounding the college. :)</p>
<p>Is anyone else here feeling kind of melancholy this Christmas? D graduates in June, will sit for the CPA exam this summer, and then start her job in September. Right now she is home on break (her university has a six-week break from Thanksgiving until Christmas- itās how their quarter system is arranged.) Anyway, I catch myself thinking sad things like āthis is the LAST TIME she will ever be with us for such an extended period of time.ā It is so embarassing to find yourself crying in Kroger!</p>
<p>Yeah, pitiful. Iām happy that she is doing well and I am thrilled that she has a job, but I kind of wish her new job (and her new life) were not so far away. (And itās not even really that far away - just a 5 hour drive.)</p>
<p>S will be home for 12 days after this semester ends and before his job begins. Itāll be the last extended trip home for awhile. Iām not at the crying stage yet, but I am feeling wistful now and then.</p>
<p>Scout and Shellfell: I understand exactly how you feel. Iām thrilled that my D has a job lined up for next fall, but I know that this is the end of an era. Her college is only 2 hours from home, and she will be moving to a city 8 hours away (but only a 1 hour flight).</p>
<p>Iām expecting S1 will be at a significant distance from us. His offer is in CA (other coast from us), but other offices under consideration are at least four hours away. If the GF lands something great in her country or elsewhere in Europe, he may go to one of his companyās offices over there.</p>
<p>Sigh. He hasnāt spent the summer here since before he left for college, but it doesnāt make it any easier now.</p>
<p>Kind of fun to see some names I remember from 4 years back when we were all hopeful our kids would get into the college of their choice and succeed. My S is graduating with a double major at UNC and his heart is set on Law School. Duke is his first choice - go figure. He has made these last 4 years so wonderful with the added pleasure of never having to write one check to UNC. He did it all himself. All I had to do was enjoy the ride. Congrats to all the ps out there with graduating kids.</p>
<p>Not feeling melancholy because #1 I have 2 more, and #2 I think, more than likely, she will be moving back in after graduation while she gets her teaching credential. I love D1, but we get along much better when she is a couple of hours away.</p>
<p>Congratulations to those of you whose Ss and Ds have found real jobs! Sorry that most of those jobs entail your kids moving far from home. I wonāt start to get teary until we know where she will be for the following two years but I definitely feel the passing of an era with older D graduating.</p>
<p>My kids went across the country to college, and both of them spent at least a summer working/studying in other countries and other places. Nothing is changing that much for me, in terms of how much I see them. I am OK with it all because I trust they will come home, 4-6 years after graduating. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and if you can afford it, it really is one of the best places to live in the world. So I am hoping the place itself is enough a draw that I will get them back. We shall see, of course.</p>
<p>Alumother - the Bay Area is also a nice place to visit if your kids decide to live there - especially if you like wine! I also expect at least one of mine to return to the East Coast in 4-6 years.</p>
<p>Well, since mine and all his stuff will be arriving back on my doorstep in early May, the only tears I shed will be over the lack of a job and how to sell my house with a messy twenty-two year old in residence. I would be thrilled if he had any job prospect even if it was in Alaska. Just saw him last weekend. His conversation had little do with summer prospects and more about the new video game his roommate had just bought and how to make their drafty old house warmer.He doesnāt seem to have any sense of urgency about the internship he has to secure for the summer in order to receive his diplomaā¦sigh.</p>
<p>Part of my problem with melancholy/Christmas break/etc. is that my D is my one and only and that - after slogging through some semi-terrible times in her adolescence - D and I have now become really good friends. It seems unfair that after making it through those teen tantrums and stormy silences, sheās NOW moving out! How dare she move away now that sheās fun!?</p>
<p>yeah, I know - as my husband says, this is the way itās supposed to be: grow up, move out, make your own way. I know that in my head, but my heart is just a little slower. I know thatās how itās SUPPOSED to be, but that doesnāt mean I have to like it!</p>