Apparently St. John’s College, Annapolis is easier to get in to than to stay in. There is a major exodus of freshman before Thanksgiving; they decide either they can’t cut it or don’t want to. This is also true at other points in the four year process as well, I am told, where either students or the college decides that a student continuing is not for the best. This is a place for smart out-of-the-box kids, autodidacts who want to think for themselves and are non-crowd-following individuals, who can deal both with not being told the answers in black and white and the occasionally frustrating ambiguity of reasoning something out for themselves. This is not for everyone.
The upshot of all this is that because a student left, the girl across the hall moved into a room of her own and her former roommate was lonely with a larger room, so our daughter’s roommate moved in with her, leaving our daughter (blessedly) with a double to herself; she now has her own sanctuary in the fray. Thankfully this all occurred just before we came to visit, so we bought her a bedspread to make the second empty bed like a couch and brought her a large white board to put on the blank wall. See the pictures of her new/old room on this post. We hope this extra space will bring some peaceful sanity to the frenzy of her schedule here.
In one picture you can see a big board over a large part of her ceiling covering an expanse that came crashing down a few weeks ago after her garret room was leaking during some incessant rain. A little drama she didn’t need; they are scheduled to fix the hole properly over the Christmas break. She also has three photos of recent artwork of mine up! The food is bad, so now she has a little pantry in the other closet…
I was also incredulous that parents were not only invited but encouraged by their kids to come to Saturday evening’s waltz party. (My parents would not have been welcome at one of my college parties!) We danced in the “Great Hall” in the McDowell building that Lafayette also danced in. They had dancing lessons before hand for the parents and we had fun learning how to “dip” for the first time. (I’m now looking for excuses to practice that often!) This dance party scene is repeated in some variation each Saturday night (Oktoberfest with polka, Halloween with costumes… etc). Ginger Ale was served, with chips, cookies and M&Ms, which we heard was typical. It was so wholesome, such face value fun, it was at once surprising and reassuring. These heady, almost counter-cultural kids can cut a rug and have some perennial, uninhibited, clean cut fun!
We were so glad to get to spend a few days being of help to our daughter and comprehending her environment. I like her unusual college more every time I visit, which is a nice state of affairs. It was hard to say goodbye but she’ll be home for Thanksgiving…
Enjoy the photos…
