Category: College Tales

And We All Made It!

December 31, 2023

And We All Made It!

Butterflies swam in my heart, stomach, mind… anywhere… everywhere all at once.  

I’m sitting in one of the folding seats in the Ocean Center with a baby nursing… I’ve been here, done that before, but never have I been in this venue for the event that is unfolding before me.  

A cycle of pictures of young men and women in more childish images showed on the screen that usually displayed my gymnasts’ scores.  

My gymnasts are sitting in the row behind me because our group of twelve takes almost two whole rows.  They are not in warm-ups cheering teammates, but keeping siblings entertained as they all wait for Christina. 

Marching Music!  

There they come!  Hundreds of young people in black gowns and caps.  Christina has a decorated cap with a quote from The Hobbit.  Her cap is bright green – and that makes her easy to pick out of the sea of black gowns and caps.  

Christina is graduating with her 4-year-degree from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University!  Her graduation from high school with her AA degree from St Johns River State was the first college graduation ceremony I’d attended.  I look around me at six of my other seven children and my niece.  I smile; it definitely won’t be the last!

Everyone is waving and trying to get Christina to see them.  Christina’s fiancé was also watching along with some of his family a little higher up in the arena!  Kimberly is impressed with this use of the floor that she’s been competing on for three seasons and will be coming to again in 2024.  

The keynote speaker starts: Rebeccah’s plane hasn’t yet landed.  Louis is monitoring that.  The keynote speaker’s last encouragement?  “Adapt and overcome” – my Daddy said that all the time.  It almost made me feel like he was watching.  

A text.  Rebeccah’s plane landed.  She’s getting a taxi from the airport.  It’s a couple of miles.  She’d managed to get out of her college classes and work early so she could catch the earliest flight from Pensacola to Daytona.  I had prayed she would get to the venue to see Christina walk.  

I walked out to change Laud the same time as Louis said Rebeccah was here but not sure how to get in.  I walked to meet her; she is very enterprising and self-reliant so had discovered the entry herself.

We took our seats.  

Christina’s group of graduates stood.  My crew waved and Christina looked up to see Rebeccah here.  

We were all present.  

Louis, me, Rebeccah, Kimberly, Jaquline, Jillian, Lucas, Theadora, Laud.  Grandma Tina.  Aunt Becca and Anastasia.  Louis had his mom on video phone or something like that.  She said she was watching it live-streamed.  All of Louis’ and my little Tart clan was here to cheer on our Christina as she graduated.  

Our determined, ambitious, perfectionist whose smile lights up rooms.  October had been her 20th birthday.  My mind flew backward to that box of confetti in plane shapes.  She’d been accepted to the only university she wanted to attend: and Louis and I wondered how we would pay for it.  Scholarships, grants, loans, and flight training on a few credit cards – she’d worked as much as possible to make it happen.  We’d helped some.  Christina had made it happen.  

Christina walked up to get her diploma.  With honors.  (My perfectionist was bummed she didn’t make “with highest honors”) She did her little dance move she did at her “high school” graduation.  She looked up and beamed at us.  I am so proud of her!  (And Thea yells “you got this!” – even though it wasn’t a gymnastics meet)  

All of us were there.  Sure, our baby won’t remember it.  He actually slept through the keynote speaker and woke just before Christina walked.  Thea and Lucas will remember playing and being bored, respectively.  From Anastasia up to Rebeccah though; they know it’s a big deal.  They know, with varying degrees of understanding, how much work Christina put into getting to this goal.  They watched, with varying degrees of understanding, as she studied, worked, stressed, complained, forced herself to take fun breaks once in a blue moon, prayed, and pushed on.  

With Little Cousin
Mom, Graduate, Grandma
With Littlest Sister
Our Graduate!
Sister-Cousins

We all celebrated with Christina. 

I am so thankful for miraculous appearing of funding at needed times.  I am so thankful for my determined young woman who made her goal happen.  I will cherish this memory.  

Soar high Christina!  Remember what your determination and ambition made happen!  God opens doors but you have to choose to walk through them!  Your graduation didn’t happen “just because” – there were lots of late nights, missed sleep, forcing yourself to go to work when you wanted to sleep in, exams you stressed far too much over, budget cuts to pay for the next simulator, and other challenges you rose to and overcame.  

Keep on flying high – you are “forever an eagle” now!

Thank you for reading!

Type at you next time!

~Nancy Tart

Stretching Her Eagles’ Wings

Enjoy each moment! We know our children are “on loan” from God for a little while & then they take flight! Enjoy this adventure, Becky!

Stretching Her Eagles’ Wings

August 28, 2022

Part of our educational philosophy is never to hold anyone back.  That is sometimes the hardest part of being a homeschool mom, at least for me. 

Friday, Christina, Louis, Thea, and I drove Becky to Pensacola Christian College for the start of her next level.

The car trip was fun.  Louis and Christina kept playing songs Becky likes and saying, “oops, that’s not classical or hymns” which made everyone laugh and several discussions of songs and lyrics and morality erupt.  We didn’t stop as often for potty or snack breaks as Louis thought we’d have to (Thea was too entertained with her big sisters and Christina, Thea, and I packed a bunch of snacks). 

The campus was huge and iconic.  Beautiful brick and magnificent stately trees reflected tradition and integration.  I’m a bit nerdy; I loved the architecture and old fashioned style.  Everything was electronic though!  I had received an email asking for a physical copy of a specific document – and being leery of electronic access as I am, I brought the actual paper.  Didn’t need it.  The electronic version of the printed paper in my purse “transferred” perfectly from St Johns River without a thing from me.  As Becky’s “authorized parent,” I was able to load into a portal on my phone that allowed me access to maps, her mailbox information, orientation information, even schedules and everything as if I were the student – Becky said it was creepy, I thought it was cool!

After crossing off the seven things (five on the “welcome” list, but with Becky under eighteen there were two paperwork drop offs and as she’s in the work program, she had a task for that as well) Becky had to do and being as much help (okay, Becky would call it hindrance) as possible, we decided (not precisely accurate, Louis decided) to go have a late lunch together just off campus. 

Someone likes Becky’s new spot!

Mellow Mushroom.  In Pensacola?  I thought the one on Anastasia Island was the only…  oops.

Finally, I ended up with a picture of my college girls.  They thought it cool because both are Eagles and blue & gold & white.  (Kimberly got in on that because she took her SAT at Pedro Menendez High School so she considers herself a “Falcon” and even has a Pedro Menendez Vystar card!  She pulled it out and showed them the blue & yellow colors – “A falcon is a type of eagle” Kimberly claims.)  Becky laughed because she and Kimberly plan on being Gators when they head for their Masters & Doctorate.  (“trading the gold for orange” they claim) Remember that mustard yellow skirt?  Becky’s pairing it with her beautiful navy blue blouse turns her outfit into her college colors!

I’ve been listening a lot to college plans since we encourage studying the path to what they want to do and finding various ways to access that final goal.  There was a lot of path and plan discussion on that road trip. 

I’m so proud of Becky for taking flight!  I pray she has a wonderful experience and learns a lot.  I pray she makes friends and connections that will last a lifetime!  I pray she does her best.  Her best right now is amazing me.  I’m truly excited for her entering this stage. 

Thank you, Jesus, for making it possible for us to help our children pursue their dreams!  Thank you that each of them wants to help the other.  Thank you that each wants to invest in their own education by working for it both financially and mentally.  I’m so thankful for the blessing of Becky in my life!  Thank you, Jesus, for allowing me the honor of being her mother! 

As I’m driving back home, chatting with Christina as Thea and Louis sleep in the back, I think on how parents only really get to father or mother their children for a few years – they are on loan from God anyway as all of them are God’s children entrusted to us.   “21 years” by TobyMac came on the radio followed by “Cinderella” by Stephen Curtis Chapman… God knows how music touches me.  One bit in the “21 years” song that makes me smile is “21 years, what a beautiful loan,” (I thank you Jesus, for trusting us and “loaning” Becky – and the others, but this thought was really about Becky – to us) and in “Cinderella” the bit is “but I know something the prince never knew,” [meaning they grow up and go] and yes, girls become young women, make their own decisions, and I pray mine know they can still talk to me about anything. 

Enjoy your “loans” with your littles!  Enjoy every bit you can.  God has trusted us with training and raising His beautiful children!  Just like I love watching “my little gymnasts” (those I’ve coached, usually as preschoolers) as they rise, I love watching my girls become young ladies. 

I love you, Becky!  Let your light shine!  Enjoy this adventure called life!  Every day is a gift from God; that’s why it’s called the present!

Thank you for reading.

Type at you later,

~Nancy Tart

Becky: The Second Story

Becky: The Second Story

July 30, 2022

Part of our educational philosophy is never to hold anyone back but also, not to push so hard that they begin to think of learning as a chore.  Learning is a life-long pursuit of knowledge that branches into everything that God has gifted us on our planet.  We learn about Jesus, we learn about His creation, we learn about people, we learn about animals, we learn about our amazing interconnecting tapestry that is our Earth, we learn about ourselves and about others.  We are consistently learning.   Sometimes we learn at a fast pace and sometimes slower than a snail in quicksand. 

Becky has been through phases of learning.  Her thirst for knowledge ebbs and flows but is always there, driving her to learn.  She has dropped everything to study anatomy, shading, artistic styles, and all about sketching, illustrating, and painting as an artform and practical applications in our commercial world.  She’s been on medical stints and animal explorations for days to years at a time.  She is always learning but not always traditionally. 

Her latest discovery was about self.  She is not a good hybrid or online learner.  She wants interaction with an actual teacher or professor and hands-on training, manipulation, and the ability to see and touch what she is learning.  She loves laboratories and field study. 

She got a bit disheartened about college classes when our local St Johns River went hybrid online after the whole government-required shutdown debacle.  She was finally old enough to attend a pre-med camp she had been salivating over since she first learned about it at twelve years old.  We sent her.  She came back with a renewed vigor and excitement about learning and declared happily, “I want to go to college there!”

Fast forward nine months. 

She’s going to college there.  Stop.  My sixteen year old is getting in my car in August, and I’m driving her six and a half hours away to a college campus.  Stop.  My heart soars for her because I wanted to do the same thing when I was sixteen.  My heart beats a little fast because she is the first of my littles to actually go live away.  Yes, she’s the same one who has been a nanny and lived in North Carolina for three weeks at a time in stints, but that was with family.  Yes, she’s been on extended Grandma Joanne trips, again, family.  I’m literally dropping her off at a college dorm to see her again at Christmas (or maybe Thanksgiving). 

Part of me isn’t ready for this. 

The largest part of me is over-the-moon excited for her.  I can only step in her shoes and imagine myself when I was sixteen, trying my best to get into that same college – and two years later trying to get enough money for the other college I wanted.  I would have been thrilled!

So I did what I had planned to do as a teenager for myself; I took her shopping (I know, I hate shopping – and Becky isn’t on the “I-love-shopping” club either) to buy items for her dress code.  We found a whole wardrobe minus the “formal dress” and “suit jacket” for her to mix and match into a few outfits. 

“Whole wardrobe” sounds like a lot.  Her wardrobe consists of three new blouses and three new skirts to match her two button-up long-sleeve blouses creating quite a few outfits.  Long ago, I had planned a wardrobe for myself with pretty much the same things (I would have exchanged the mustard skirt for a Hawaiian floral print, however).  It was super cool to just be me and Becky.  Although our shopping was squeezed into about forty-five minutes on a Wednesday at the outlets… we walked in and out of three or four stores just browsing yet seeing nothing she liked that fit the dress code like army soldiers.  I almost felt sorry or wanted to laugh at the salespeople we left standing there after we marched in, around the store, and out without stopping.  Through the window of the last store I figured this would be where we found stuff and I reminded Becky of what I recall as “Aunt Katy’s shopping advice” – “If you don’t absolutely love it, don’t buy it.” (I don’t know if my sister ever said those words exactly, but that I remember from shopping with her once ages ago.)

Even though part of me isn’t ready for Becky to be gone for months at a time, I have learned life is full of changes.  I embrace the changes as they come.  I love this stage for Becky!  I’m excited for her!  I pray she has an amazing college journey, meets encouraging friends, and thrives in the hands-on, Biblical environment at Pensacola Christian College.  Becky has always tossed things at me before I’m ready… college classes at twelve, disappearing with Grandma for multiple weeks, volunteering to nanny four states away, and other things I won’t mention, so getting early admitted to a college and living in a dorm doesn’t surprise me too much.  (No, she didn’t get to “skip” graduation announcement at church… shh… she’ll be home next year when they do “graduation Sunday” and her cutest goofy baby picture will be up there with everyone else from that year.) 

Enjoy this adventure called life!  Every day is a gift from God; that’s why it’s called the present!

Thank you for reading.

Type at you next time,

~Nancy Tart

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