LAUREN MORTON-FARMER
Staff Writer
It’s a chilly but beautiful London morning, and a new sort of calm has settled over the Pepperdine house at 56 Prince’s Gate. For nearly two months, we have run about the city and carefully assimilated into the daily life of this European capital to the point where actual Britons have asked us how to get to Harrod’s (and we can tell them). But before we could get too big for our breeches, Parents Weekend arrived.
The festivities didn’t begin until the night of Thursday, Nov. 3, but all through the week, parents and relatives trickled into our lives and suddenly everyone’s personalities in the house made a lot more sense. With each parent, grandparent, sister and aunt, it became clear how each of us got to be the way we are.
Character traits aside, this weekend was just what we all needed to boost spirits after midterms and rouse excitement for the remaining days of the semester. Thoughts of leaving this country generally bring us down, but the thought of warm holiday greetings when we arrive back at LAX in December quickly assuages any misgivings about pulling away from Heathrow.
Beyond the initial excitement of seeing our families, Parents Weekend gave us a chance to really prove to them how we have grown. It allowed us to be the tour guides, the restaurant connoisseurs and the ones saying, “Call me when you get back to your hotel,” just to make sure they didn’t get lost in a foreign city.
Pepperdine law student Michael Kosak put it perfectly.
“You’ve raised good parents,” he said.
After years of trying to curtail any possibly embarrassing comments coming from them, I think we’ve all come to just smile, laugh it off and generally be proud of the parents we’ve raised.
At some point, whether we knew it or not, we came to the realization that our parents do not know everything. Some-where in there, we began to trust our own judgment. Of course, we are still young and that judgment has been swayed at times, but we’re learning. I think our parents have all begun to realize that. When we step too far, instead of the “grown-ups” pulling us back, we do that for each other and take our newfound boundaries in stride.
We will always be their little girls and boys, but in a year or two, we’ll all be out in the world making it on our own. By then, Parents Weekend will be a happy reminder of when we stopped being just our parent’s children and became friends and equals as well.
Not to say that we’re done being kids (as I write this, I am nursing aching feet after standing in a crowd for eight hours at the “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” world premiere yesterday), but we are getting there.
We will hold onto the children within us, and we’ll make stupid decisions and deal with the consequences because that’s what college kids do. For now, we’re heading off to another week full of classes, inside jokes, group dinners, sing-alongs and general Pepperdine merriment. It’s safe to say that life is sweet on this side of the pond and will be until we make our triumphant return to Malibu as new people.
11-10-2005
