Serious and Silly - Back to School 2022

Weekly Update - August 26, 2022

This week, we went on a short family trip to Asheville. While western North Carolina is beautiful, that wasn’t the reason for the trip. We went so that Elizabeth could visit a couple of the colleges she is interested in, including the current leader - UNC Asheville. 

It was surreal to be doing college visits again. It barely feels like Elizabeth has started high school. Now she is graduating? It doesn’t seem possible. Part of the reason for that is the pandemic. Elizabeth spent the last part of her freshman year and most of her sophomore year doing online school. When she did go back, she started off doing hybrid school - partially online and partially in person. In her 3 years at East she has actually attended traditional, in person classes for about a year and a half. Elizabeth and her cohorts have lost so very much to this pandemic.

Part of the reason that it felt surreal to be visiting college was Elizabeth’s unusual high school experience. And part of the reason that it felt surreal to be visiting colleges with her (the third kid we have gone through this process with) is that we were joined on these college visits by her little brother. Who is 6. Which means in (checks notes) 12 years we will be doing this again. Pure insanity.

Although I will say that having Justin with us gave me my favorite moment from the trip.