Rosie #3 -- Christendom

Sometime during Rosie's junior year in high school, we began to notice ads in the assortment of intellectual-Catholic-nerd magazines -- Crisis, First Things, Catholic World Report -- that littered our house (and still do!) for a two-week summer high school college/camp program at Christendom College in Virgina. That is a good long way from where we live now, but only about an hour-and-a-half drive from the small town in Pennsylvania where I grew up. Rosie had been in the area several times and liked it, AND there was enough discretionary money available for the cost. (When your husband is self-employed, discretionary money comes and goes on an unpredictable schedule.) Rosie thought maybe she'd like to go, so we sent off her registration. I think she was ambivalent right up until she got on the plane, but that didn't last long!

We really missed Rosie at home, but the two weeks went by quickly, and my husband and I picked her up at the airport. (Ah, for the days when you could meet people at the gate! :-\ ) She was tired but bubbly, and it soon became clear that the bubbles were from an interior change. You can call it a conversion experience, or a light bulb moment, or just a chance to get away from home and look at things from a new angle. Whatever you call it, it was no longer difficult for her to stay away from negative "friends", or get out the door to mass on time, or be generous with her time and energy for the family. (She's always been generous with her "stuff", and I don't mean she wasn't cheerful before, only that now it was even more noticeable.) And she had a definite plan -- she wanted to go to college at Christendom.

Arwen had applied to a varied list of schools, but wound up attending Major University in Ann Arbor, mostly because Bryan was there, although at this point she was just coming off a breakup with him (for the full story, see here. Rosie, though, thought she was sure now where she wanted to go. BUT, and these are big buts: it was far away (for Rosie, who's a homebody), it was expensive, and they tell you right up front that most financial aid is for freshmen only. Get in, get hooked, and get into enormous debt! So we suggested that maybe she should check into other options as well. And that's tomorrow's story.