Parent's Weekend 2011

It was a bittersweet moment seeing my parents for the first time since move-in day, for our last Parent's Weekend together at Elmira College. They arrived a day earlier than they had every other year so that they could experience Simeons, Elmira College's 5 star restaurant on campus. After showing off my awesome room in the brand new Meier Hall again, we walked as a family to the campus center for our 7:00 dinner reservation. It was so refreshing to be together again, and catch up on the activities that had occur ed throughout September both at home and on campus. We enjoyed scallops, grilled salmon, won-ton crusted shrimp, salad, bread, and mousse cakes for dessert and luckily had the entire restaurant to ourselves for most of the time! After dinner, we met up with my roommate and headed to Gibson Theater to watch a comedy show called the Dynamite Project that was scheduled for the night. We were unsure what to expect, but we were all pleasantly surprised as the show started, and the performers immediately had every audience member in tears from laughing. The performers handed out a limited supply of posters after the show, and I had them autograph mine so I could hang it in my room as a conversation piece. The following morning, I met my parents for a buffet breakfast in the Campus Center and immediately after breakfast, we decided to take our second trip to the nearby historic Quarry Farm, where Mark Twain spent his summers and wrote many of his famous novels. We took the old purple bus with other students and parents and relived the life of Mark Twain through a student and scholar exclusive tour that occurs only on special occasions, Parent's Weekend being one of them. We took the bus back and grabbed a few sandwiches at a buffet line in the Campus Center before heading back to get dressed up and ready for our last Dinner Dance together. Before heading back the hotel, my parents dragged a week's worth of laundry out of the car to wash in the laundry room on the terrace level of my dorm, since our washer at home had recently broke, and the replacement had not arrived yet. Some students bring their laundry home for their parents, but my parents bring their laundry to school for me, what can I say? Anyways, after we changed into our fancy dinner clothes, my parents met me at 6:00 and we walked to Doctor Meier's on-campus house for the class of 2012 pre-dinner party celebration where we were met at the door, congratulated on our achievements and my nomination for graduation, and offered a glass of champagne. At 7:00, we headed for the upper level of the campus center to find our table for the dinner dance. This year, we sat with a sophomore, her parents, and her younger sister and found out that her father attended culinary school in my hometown! (What a small world) We were ecstatic when we were one of the first tables called to go to the dinner buffet (we hadn't had such luck in past years). After dinner, and after we sang the Alma Mater, the mothers and sons were called to the dance floor for a dance together. Immediately afterwards, the fathers and daughters were called to share a dance, and I started to tear up thinking that this was my last father daughter dance with my dad at Elmira College. We danced shoulder to shoulder with dozens of other fathers and daughters who all shared memories and laughed and hugged throughout the duration of the dance. The following morning, we shared breakfast together, talked for a while in the Meier Hall Lounge, and then shared a few tears as we embraced in a familiar, but unwelcome, goodbye hug, knowing that the next time we would see each other, would be for Thanksgiving dinner almost two months away. It was my favorite Parent's Weekend and a perfect way to start my final year at Elmira College, with the two people who helped me get here and who have supported me throughout my college experience.