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
