When summer comes to a close, the senior class will prepare for the college life. While a small group will stay within casual visiting range of their homes, the majority will have to make the adjustment to complete independence.
“What I’ll miss most is definitely my mom and just how she helps out by doing favors for me and things for me when she can,” senior Justin Roach said.
Roach is attending University of Washington in the fall, a two-hour plane ride from home.
“I’m sure it will be challenging at first, just not having really any guidance,” Roach said. “Actually becoming an adult and having your own set of rules. I think that’s the biggest change.”
Roach is participating in a summer immersion trip in Italy over the summer. For a month, he will live with fellow senior Mark Bublitz in an apartment in Florence learning Italian.
Roach said he hopes the summer trip will help him prepare for the transition to full independence.
Senior Georgia Hill will set foot for the first time in Ohio when she begins school at College of Wooster in the fall.
“I’m definitely going to miss my mom babying me because she does all my laundry,” Hill said.
Hill said her parents are going to help her transition to independence over the summer by forcing her to do her own laundry and housekeeping.
“They’re probably going to make me cook meals for them,” she said. “Basically I’m going to baby them and d o the laundry, wash dishes, and all the other labor.”
Hill is currently experiencing the phase of parents imparting endless advice on their children before they go off to college.
“My parents sound like Gandhi,” she said. “Everything that happens now, they’re like, ‘oh, you have to watch out for that in college.’ It’s mostly warnings of what not to do.”
Hill will also consider the advice from her cousins who are currently in college.
“They basically told me that I should always be on time, especially with singing up for classes to get the ones you want,” Hill said. “They all love college, and they tell me it’s the best thing ever.”