I made my first trip down to see her Labor Day weekend with my mom and my sister, Karen. I don't know who was happier to see her, my mom, my sister or me?? It was probably a toss up. She was a sight for sore eyes. I was so glad to see her. She was doing well, having fun and really happy. We met her best college guy friend, Mike, I thought to myself, what a nice kid.
A call about three weeks into the semester and Suzannah's excited voice at the end says "Hey Mom - guess what?" I'm playing RUGBY!!! Of course, my first thought was REALLY?? My next thought was wow, I was a really nervous soccer goalie mom, how in the world am I going to ever make it through Rugby when she is playing 6 hours away, what if she gets hurt? I can't begin to tell you how much she loved rugby. She said she was born to play rugby. I have never been so nervous in my life. I made her call me after every game to make sure she stayed in one piece. Not only was she playing rugby, but she was driving all over Florida (Boca Raton, Gainesville, Tallahassee etc.) Her Dad. myself and her aunts loaded up and went to see her play Rugby against FSU and it was just as bad as I had expected. I was almost unable to watch, not only does it look like it hurts, it sounds like it hurts!! I think the worst call she made to me was guess what mom?? "I scored in the game today AND" the and always gets you. "I have a black eye" WHAT????? She said that a girl got mad in the game a cold cocked her in the eye, my first action/comment I am not so proud of, it went like this" Did you hit her back?" her response was "No mom, the second person always gets caught, but I put her DOWN on the next play, LEGALLY, of course.
Next came BEEFSTUDS - you may be wondering exactly what I wondered? What is that??
Well the Beefstuds are the crazy college kids that get dressed up for the football games in all of their paraphernalia. I have attached a picture for you to get the full effect. She was painted up and wore bull horns, it was amazing. It certainly didn't hurt that her best college guy friend, Mike was also beefstudding, I think they had a blast. She said getting the paint off was not so easy.
Of course, how could I not mention her first drive home by herself. I must say that it was the longest 6 hours of my entire life. I had her stopping and calling/texting me every hour or two, she said "I can't even drive home for stopping and calling you" I have to admit I was a wreck. I told her to humor me, it didn't take 6 hours to bring her into this world and this was just about to stress me out. I was about as far out of my comfort zone as could possibly be.
Time came and went and Paul and I made a few trips down to see her. On one of the trips we took her and Mike out to dinner and I could tell they were up to something. Then finally Mike asked us if it would be okay for Suzannah to come to Baltimore to visit him over Christmas break, the pitch was that she could meet his family and also she had never been to Baltimore, he would show her around. I think they were surprised that we said okay, so I had to share her with her best friend for about 4 days over Christmas break, that would be okay.
Well she arrived home for Christmas and just a couple of weeks before, she and Mike became boyfriend/girlfriend, so now her best coolege guy friend was now her boyfriend. It was a regular skype date for them almost every night. I guess I wasn't the only one who was thankful for Skype. She made her trip to Bel Air, MD right after Christmas and they also made a trip to see Mike's grandma in New Jersey and spent a couple of days traveling back and forth into New York City.
Suzannah returned home and then it was time to say good bye again. I thought the more times I said good bye, it would get easier and it didn't.
She thoroughly enjoyed her first semester. I think that she learned more about being on her own and living away from home more than she learned academically. I guess you could say that the theme for me the first semester she was gone would be "getting out of my comfort zone" and let me tell you I was out of my comfort zone more than I was in it that first semester.
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