That's my girl!

I've always been a firm believer that kids should actually go away to college. And by away I mean away, away. As in far away. As in not able to still do your laundry at home away. College is the time in your life that you get to live anywhere you want, completely on your own, but still have a safety net. You're on a campus, with local resources to help you adjust, and usually Mom and Dad still pay for you to fly home for Christmas, Spring Break, and Summer. And if you hate it and decide where you're from is where you want to spend the rest of your life at least you've tried something new. If you up and move away when you're older, and then move back, that's twice the apartment hunting, twice the job hunting, etc. College is your opportunity to try something new and exciting without the grown-up burdens.

That is why I have already started planting the idea in Hannah's head that she can go anywhere in the world for college. Why stay in Massachusetts or New England? Heck, why even stay in the States? It's actually closer for her to go to college in Ireland or England than it is to go to college in California. This of course rules out most of the big Ivy League colleges...Harvard, Yale, and Brown University are all less than 2 hours away. Princeton is a little further but they have those weird Eating Club things that I never quite understood from Kate's years there so I'm not sure I approve of that school either. ;-)

All that being said, I was terribly proud of Hannah when I found this in her school desk last week when we were there for her Author's Tea.

All spellings, punctuation, and capitalizations are Hannah's:

Argentena, Mali, Africa, phillipnenes, Germany, Peru, Nevada, Utah

Whare I want to go to college, IN LOT 'O YEARS!

My choce is

?????

Obviously, even though it's not on her list, she is planning on going to Ireland. What's up with "lot 'o years"?

I could not be more proud. I love the idea that she has an international sense of self and is not limiting herself to her own backyard.