College fun

We had a nice video call with Natalie on Sunday evening while granny was over for dinner. She was working in the Branford library, then had to go outside because the fire alarm kept going off, then, once that was over, she retreated to the Branford common room where a Super Bowl party was going on and sat in front of a mirror (details added for future memory sparks).

She told us that she had a paper due for her essay-writing class the next evening at 8, and that it was hard because it was in the autobiographical mode, which wasn't something she was comfortable with (despite having written fine college essays).

Then, yesterday evening at 7 she texts mom a picture of the menu from a pescatarian (mostly vegetarian) Chinese New Year feast she was attending, and said it was running longer than she was expecting and that she didn't have her paper done. This made Mr. Achievement over here nervous, and I nudged her a little. She said that she would only get marked down a third of a grade for being late, and that it wasn't worth rushing.

In the end, I think she made the right decision. Trying new stuff out, meeting people, experiencing the world, those are the benefits of being in college and going to a place like Yale where there's a lot on offer. Her grades will be fine, she works plenty hard and is super organized. Straight As her first semester, something I never quite pulled off. And Lord knows I wasted tons of time doing many things much less productive than eating a bunch of interesting Chinese food.

The lesson for me is, clearly, back the fuck off.