{"id":134755,"date":"2025-03-15T07:45:50","date_gmt":"2025-03-15T07:45:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/american-history\/reflections-of-a-college-dad\/"},"modified":"2025-03-15T07:45:50","modified_gmt":"2025-03-15T07:45:50","slug":"reflections-of-a-college-dad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=134755","title":{"rendered":"Reflections of a College Dad"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

[With one
\nson in college and another about to be, Spring Break is a lot more than just a
\nconcept or a professional reality for this AmericanStudier. So this week I\u2019ve
\nAmericanStudied a handful of cinematic portrayals of Spring Break, leading up
\nto these weekend reflections on being a college Dad!]<\/p>\n

On three
\nof the countless moments across this year (to date) that I\u2019ve been pleasantly
\nreminded of my changed circumstances (I\u2019ll spare y\u2019all the sadder reminders).<\/span><\/p>\n

1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>Stadium Spotting: As I\u2019ve
\nmentioned here<\/a> a couple times, my older son is a first-year at Vanderbilt,
\nwhere he\u2019s been having a truly phenomenal time on all counts. One of the most
\nunexpected and delightful of those counts was the football team\u2019s surprisingly
\nsuccessful season, which included a truly historic
\nupset win<\/a> over Alabama. My son was able to be in the student section for
\nthat win and most every other of their home games this year, which led to a new
\nfavorite pastime for his brother and me: seeing if we could find him amidst the
\nstudent section hordes when they were shown on the TV broadcasts. I can\u2019t lie,
\nmy son\u2019s younger eyes were much better at that game than his Dad\u2019s, but we both
\ndid eventually manage to spot him each and every time\u2014and for a Dad missing his
\nson acutely, those were certainly moving moments indeed. <\/span><\/p>\n

2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>Professorial Props: My son is a Civil
\nEngineering Major, so many of his classes during this first year have been
\nquite different from any that I teach (or took back in the day). But as part of
\nhis Fall semester, he did take a Literature and the Environment course that was
\none of his favorites of the year (I genuinely believe that\u2019s the case, biased
\nas I might also be), and indeed has helped convince him to add an Environmental
\nStudies Minor. Moreover, the class even taught his AmericanStudying Dad a thing
\nor two, including introducing me to a contemporary indigenous poet I had never
\npreviously know about (Tommy
\nPico<\/a>). So once the semester was done and grades were in and there was hopefully
\nno danger of being perceived as one of \u201cthose parents,\u201d I shot the professor a quick
\nnote to let her know how much both my son and I had enjoyed this class (she was
\nas appreciative as I would have been to get such a note). Felt very much like
\nmultiple layers of my identity connecting at once in the best possible ways. <\/span><\/p>\n

3)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>Country Concert: I hope it goes without
\nsaying, for a young person embarking on their college career in Nashville, that
\nmy son has gotten to lots of concerts this year. But I can\u2019t lie, I\u2019m most
\nexcited about a concert that\u2019s coming up in just over a month\u2014thanks to my wife
\nand me (mainly her, as it was her awesome idea), his brother will be flying
\ndown for the weekend and the two of them will be seeing one of our recent favs,
\nthe great Kane
\nBrown<\/a>, perform in the city in which he and my son both live. I\u2019m not ready
\nto say goodbye to my younger son yet (or, well, ever), but if this is going to
\nbe a preview of a world in which they both are in college, then it might as
\nwell be such a fun preview!<\/span><\/p>\n

Next
\nseries starts Monday,<\/span><\/p>\n

Ben<\/span><\/p>\n

PS. What
\ndo you think, fellow college parents and all? <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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