The First & Another First & Yes, Another First - Emma Goes to College Day 3

Bloggy Moms Blog Dare prompt is…. “The first time....”

Here is what I wrote:

Last Thursday I sat back in this very same chair completely relieved the school year was over. “Hooray! Time for a break!” or something similar was the thought most present in my mind. I took the requisite last day of

That's Emma in the fancy shades on the right with two of her friends. school photos, happy high fived my kids and mentally did the back stroke as I saw a horizon of lazy hazy days of Summer in front of me.

You would think after more than twenty years of Mommying I would know better than that but sometimes even veterans like me flounder.

This week, my fifteen-year-old just finishing her sophomore year in high school started taking Summer Biology course at our local college. She aced the prep tests, showing she was ready for transfer level courses and off the went on Monday to her new adventure.

She did great, seriously – much better than I could hope both academically and socially as well.

The only issue was this: both of us have been a bundle of nerves about it and apparently neither of us is talking about it for fear of upsetting the other.

We opted to have her go to one of the satellite campuses for several reasons: she could get into the required course without having to have the insecurity of being on a waiting list and our dear friend, Cameron, teaches on the same campus. This made me feel more secure because if Emma needed anything, he would be close by so she could get help.

I don’t know what might happen in a college class that might require she need help, but for whatever reason, it made me feel better. She rode with him on her first day, I drove her there the second day because she had a doctor’s appointment and on this, the third day, she decided to take the public bus for the first time.

We walked toward the bus stop and she said, “I am just a nervous wreck.”

I responded in as chipper a voice I could muster, “Well, honey, you’ve been through a lot of firsts this week. We just keep stacking one first after another. This is today’s first. I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

We stood by the bus stop, waiting, and Emma didn’t look so sure about this activity she volunteered to do rather than go in early and ride with Cameron. There were quite a few people, most of whom were older or younger or not speaking English. Normally this makes for a fun adventure but today, when Emma was feeling woozy to begin with and I added a handful of change for the three-dollar bus fare and I should have recognized this might now be as easy as I originally thought.

This wasn’t an ordinary city bus which she has taken in the past, this was an “out in the hinterlands” bus which goes to the outlying, primarily farm communities in our southern central valley. She was in the minority in every way as she stepped onto that bus with her backpack, bling-touched sunglasses and lacey top.

She seemed to be taking it all in stride until her older sister caught this tweet:

So not only was this one first experience, it was two. Her first bus ride to college and her first throwing up episode on a bus.

Looking back in her twitterfeed, before this she also tweeted:

The next barrier was to be sure she and Cameron found each other once her bus arrived in Delano AND get her to campus on time. The timing looked like it couldn’t be sweeter but somehow, even that was rocky.

The good news is, they did connect – after phone calls between both Katherine and Emma and Mommy and Emma and Mommy and Cameron and Cameron and Emma. I texted her with a hint of fear thirty minutes to class. “Did you make it ok?”

She texted back within moments: “Yep, and I was only five minutes late!”

With that, I took some time to take a restful shower and prepare for my first, blissfully stress free moment of the da and another first - and I spent it, here with you: my writing date! Thanks for being here with me.