Cousins on Tour

We stayed with cousins in Virginia this weekend, visiting colleges nearby. Two of the cousins, the ones already in high school, tagged along on the tours. Another one, the young man in the orange polo shirt above, has just started his freshman year at a university in Washington D.C., and in between classes and his afternoon water polo practice, he joined us for lunch and showed us his dorm room and gave us the unofficial tour. He is an international student from Jamaica, and he's loving the college choice he made. He lobbied for our daughter to seriously consider the school so they can continue the (unplanned) family tradition of cousins attending college together.

As it turns out, after the information session and official tour, my daughter decided she did like the school. She liked the energy and diversity she saw and felt a kind of passion in the students there. She also said, "It's the only school I've visited where I heard a different language being spoken around me." But there are three other schools she likes at least as much, so we shall see where she gets in and what the financial aid packages will be, as that will definitely be a factor.

Then, later in the evening, we drove to Maryland to attend another cousin's sweet sixteen celebration. That's the birthday girl in the blue shirt, in case you can't tell. It was a glow party, and young and old, we decked ourselves out in glowing necklaces and ate and danced. The kids taught us older folk to do the Dougie and the Wobble, and we were quite a sight, let me tell you.

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