A few days prior to the move-in date for Hans, there was an email that both he and I received about the many events happening on campus over the orientation week. I realized quickly that there were over 140 events taking place over 5 days. I decided to help the boy. So, I spent some time going through each event that was listed and eventually produced a curated list of about 14 events. I shared those in a Google doc with Hans. I believe he did not look at the list until after he moved into residence. Right after, he must have skimmed through the list and wryly commented on ‘Academic Success: Pushing Past Procrastination’. That was the last one on the list. Hans told me that he was going to skip that one!
Obviously, when I shared the list with him, I told him that they were all mere suggestions.
The night before orientation week, I received the following from Hans - “Sorry mom but I am probably going to not consider the list you made for events … I want to know every event I can possibly go to and plan from there”.
That was probably one of the longer messages I ever received from Hans. I was so happy to read it.
Somewhere prior to that, we also had another exchange where he called the CAs (Community Advisors) “floor manager people”. I wondered why he can’t use the proper terminology but was pleasantly surprised to hear that he helped the 2 CAs assigned to his floor at the first community meeting. So, I sent a Momley message to endorse that and encourage such interactions. Here is what I communicated - “Just studying and getting good grades is not enough. It is the people you connect with that may matter more. And you are already doing that. So, make the most of your time by doing things outside of the lecture halls and classrooms. Don’t kill yourself by spending too much time trying to get high grades. I am okay if you just pass your courses. You can make a difference in so many other ways.”.
Hans responded with “Mom if you know me I would never over study”!
I am glad that Hans and I are on the same page. I just wish he works a
little bit on the punctuation in his text messages; however, I am content to
receive responses to my ramblings.
