It's still summer, but it's back to school for most, and it's been a series of back and forth moving experiences for my family, mostly circulating around my sons and their academic careers.
My oldest son graduated from the University of Georgia, cum laude, this spring, and came home to drive with us to the ceremony. It's a good thing he did because without his firsthand UGA GPS expertise, his younger brother and I would probably still be lost somewhere on campus looking for a parking space.
Although the heat was on throughout that day, once the sun and its glare set on the 2012 graduating class, the procession was cool, well paced and moving. The bachelor's degree candidates shifted the tassels on their mortarboards from right to left, leaving behind their undergraduate days in an explosion of fireworks, followed by hugs from family and friends.
It had been too long since we'd last visited Athens and UGA, so my son gave us his personalized tour of the campus and the college town he'd come to consider home. He shared his favorite places and memorable experiences as his younger brother hung on his every word, anticipating being a college student himself in just a few months. Years ago our orientation day included the lore of the arches, but this time our walk would allow him, as a graduate, to stroll beneath them.
Not long afterward I travelled with my younger son to Statesboro for his orientation and registration at Georgia Southern University. Different sons, different schools, and what I'm sure will be different academic and social experiences. But what I'd hoped they would share as legacies of their college experiences, the HOPE Scholarship, and therefore the thousands less in student debt, will also be sadly different.
My older son maintained his HOPE Scholarship throughout college, and initially it covered all of his tuition, most of the fees and a little toward books, but the fees and book stipends were whittled away over time, despite big bonuses being paid to Georgia Lottery executives who, we were told, earned these perks because they helped make the money our students needed. But now, when the need is greatest, HOPE excludes too much from too many of Georgia's good students.
My eldest also worked to earn his room and board in an effort to try and keep student loans to a minimum. I see ads on television now telling college students not to major in debt, but I doubt they would take on such never ending debt if programs like HOPE weren't being cut back.
My older son's journey along his career path brought him back home this summer. The move was smooth, and we avoided as much of the mid-summer southern heat as we could by welcoming a pleasantly unexpected delay that kept us working into the wee hours of the morning, completing the drive home well after the bars closed, but before rush hour began.
And as we continue to unpack and organize, I am packing and preparing to move my younger son to his new home on his new campus in the week ahead.
