Sunday was Mother’s Day.
I will now put the point of this column on hold while you call home and try to explain that you were in the library (where you get no cell phone service) all day studying for the big test. And that you didn’t know Osco sold stamps and that the post office is far away and you just don’t have time between class and practice to get there while it’s open. Oops.
Just like we college students forget what’s going on in the world, we forget birthdays and holidays, and luckily that’s pretty forgivable — after all, we live in a world all our own, where nothing from home can tie us down or even exist for us if we don’t want it to.
Also, the distance inherent in going away to college offers us the chance to see just how different and crazy some aspects of home are — crazy being the operative descriptor for most parents. Though college is a huge step in becoming who we’re supposed to become, the time we’re away from home (except you commuter students — hi, commuter students!) also is an excellent opportunity for some of those sneaky home habits to slip in.
College also highlights those aspects of our parents that we think are totally absurd.
For instance, on Friday my mom left me a voicemail while I was in class to tell me that she was sitting in traffic in Atlanta behind a car with a Northwestern bumper sticker.
“That never happens!” she exclaimed. And though she is right — that never happens in Atlanta — I couldn’t help but return her phone call by saying, “Mom, you didn’t seriously just call to tell me that …”
But Friday’s incident makes me think parents are crazy out of enthusiasm. OK, my parents are crazy out of enthusiasm. Write an angry letter the editor about how naive I am and how much your parents hate you, sure, but my parents, and the parents of many people I know, do the things they do because they are crazy for us to be successful, happy people. They may see success a tad bit differently than we do (“No, really, I am going to use this poetry major to start my own company!”), but it’s really all they want for us. And maybe to spend less of their money.
As we while away our time away from home, we learn things about ourselves that totally reek of our parents. For instance, this summer, I was packing for a trip. I tossed two different kinds of earphones into my bag — the kind that goes in your ears is for the plane, so you actually can hear the music and not hear the plane, and the big soft kind that just goes on your ears is for sleeping, so you can lay on your side and not be uncomfortable. Duh.
My roommate told me I was crazy. I thought I was being perfectly logical until I realized that two sets of headphones is just so my mom. She would think it was a great idea.
Normal people don’t need two sets of headphones. Normal people don’t leave voicemails about bumper stickers. Only moms do. And gosh darnit, that’s why we love ’em. Happy late Mother’s Day, since we all probably forgot anyway.
