This weekend, we drove to Tallahassee with Connor to move him in to his dorm for the summer session so he could start his Freshman year of college. Connor's had a super chill summer so far and has partied often with friends and enjoyed the break. He's been getting everything prepared for school, and Andrea has spent an incredible amount of energy researching everything that Connor will need, specifically for FSU’s summer session and his assigned dorm.
We had to schedule a move-in time for Connor and it was formally scheduled for afternoon on Saturday. We drove down on Friday after I finished work, and Andrea had the idea that maybe we should stop by his dorm to see if we could get the key for his room, and perhaps even check in early. Thankfully, the staff was still working and they were eager to get another student through the move in process. Connor got his key, we parked the car near the entrance, grabbed some big rolling carts, and started unloading the car.
The first evening, we unpacked a lot of his junk and realized that we'd left a few things at home, so we put in some orders at the nearby Walmart. It was enough to unload the car, and Connor was ready to go out and meet up with some of the friends he met at Orientation earlier in the summer, so Andrea and I set him loose and we headed to our hotel.
Saturday morning, we picked Connor up and headed over to Walmart. We picked up some more storage shelving, some food, and a rug. We also realized we hadn't brought any family pictures for him, so we printed some photos to a nearby CVS.
In Connor's room, we broke our backs moving the desk so we could get the rug in place. We borrowed a vacuum from the front desk, cleaned up a bit, and hung the pictures up on his wall. With the final bits and pieces in place, we were finished!
It was fun to see it all come together, and we were thankful that Connor had the opportunity to unpack and get all set up before his roommate arrived, so we didn't bother anyone else and were able to use all the space for our projects.
We walked around campus for a while in the afternoon and did some exploring. We made sure we could find the classroom where Connor would be attending his in-person class on Monday. His other class is online, and we talked to his RA about where he could find a quiet place to join the synchronous session.
We were excited to find the gym too, where Connor's applied for a job. Andrea and Connor explored the gym and Connor intends to use the track and get some workouts in.
At Connor's dorm on the ground level, Shawn noticed some odd little cubbies, and we realized that they were old phone booths. It definitely goes to show how old the dorms are, his hall has been around for quite a while and there are many students that have lived there over the years.
It was a fun weekend, and Andrea and I had intended to stay until Sunday, but we decided to head home on Saturday afternoon after Connor was settled. He has been going out with friends, eating meals and going to clubs in the evenings. He also spent quite a bit of time on Sunday refining his resume, applying online to some jobs, and he even applied to work in person at a nearby thrift store. He's taken advantage of the gym, walked around quite a bit on campus and the nearby areas, and he's settling in so well.
Connor's had a positive attitude and he's also done an impressive job jumping in to an unfamiliar situation and dealing with some hiccups. A few days before we were set to drive his car to school, an issue with his coolant system was detected. Although we'd already spent thousands of dollars replacing many parts of the system earlier this year, the mechanic found yet another issue. His check engine light has also remained on, even after replacing the gas cap and doing other troubleshooting with a different mechanic. The day before we moved him down, Andrea and I decided to get rid of the car and we sold it to Carvana. All that said, Connor's got no car at school, which is not what we planned. We were worried he'd be upset about it, but Tallahassee is a very walkable city and there's really not much need to drive for his day to day living. We will have to consider what to do when it's time for Connor to move home, but for now he's carless at college, much like Andrea and I were when we went away to school.
We are so proud of Connor and excited for his college adventures to begin!
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