5 A's and a C. Her grades for the final semester of her freshman year in college. 6 classes. All of them academic with deep, theoretical, thought provoking concepts. Well except for 1 unit of modern dance. For which she ran in circles and rolled on the floor to achieve her A. Actually, I guess that can be thought provoking.5 A's. And what is the question everyone asks?
What's up with the C?
I didn't have to ask. I knew. Thank God I knew. Because that means I asked throughout the semester and listened and remembered the answer.
I really thought English or Critical Cultural Concepts was gonna be the kicker. But, no. It was the subject that was easy in high school.
So this means there were 6 surprises for this first year away from home. 6 that I know of any way.
1) She finished her first year with 35 credits and a 3.9 something GPA. (I could not have done this.)
b) She didn't leave college to marry her high school love.
3) She didn't fall apart when she had every opportunity to cave. We had the roughest issues with our family this year that no one knew how to handle, and she had to handle them alone in a dorm room shared with well, let's just say, a roommate who came to college for the extended party, not the thought provoking concepts. As well as surgery on her toe the first week of the year at the student health center (Oh Dear God this was terrifying! and she said quite painful), a break-up with the boyfriend she didn't marry...and there's even an, etc or two.
4) Not really so much a surprise as a welcome unveiling, it turns out that so far, she is a determined, hard-working, sensitive, strong woman.
5) Everyone, except me, asked about her C grade before they congratulated her on getting 5 A's. (Yay me!) (It's the only "Yay me!" I'm allowing myself this year.)
6) The C was in Math. Apparently, it was harder than expected.
She is happily home now with a tremendous sense of humor about the C in math.
Home for only a minute before she leaves to volunteer with International Student Volunteers on an Elephant preserve and teach the poorest kids in a rural community in Thailand.
She sounds too good to be true. She is!
However:
Her floor here has disappeared under enough clothes to cover all of the poorest in the rural communities in Thailand and none of them are clean.
I don't believe she has eaten a vegetable since last August. I was hoping she would gain the "Freshman 35" but, she adamantly disagreed and only gained 5 lbs.
She seems to have inherited from me an instinct to watch romantic comedies as priority over anything else.
Well, and, of course, there's the C in Math.
And I'm sure 1000 other idiosyncrasies and questionable behavior I have thankfully missed.
All of it: her living, her love of life, her desire to help, her C, are all...Grace.
I still believe God gave me children to increase my prayer life. My knees are worn-out and the time spent there has been worth all the moments in-between and hopefully yet to come.
If you would love to help my idealistic Hannah on her journey to start saving the world - here's a link that will inspire you to do so!!
https://www.volunteerforever.com/volunteer_profile/hannah-burns
