Views of Northeastern University

Northeastern University is located in Boston and is a large urban university. It is famous for its co-op program that offers students work experience as part of the academic experience.

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Watching Basketball Together

“Hey it’s the Knicks game!” I yelled out in surprise as I peered at the men on-screen darting around the court. Not being a regular basketball fan, I didn’t know we could get broadcasts of Knicks games on FIOS.

There was an excitement in the air as my husband and daughter converged in the family room to stare at the screen. Sure enough, in crisp high definition clarity, we could see the lanky figure of Number 17 sprinting up and down, dribbling the ball from one hand to the other as if it were a mere extension of his body. Without taking our eyes off the fast-moving game, we backed up around the coffee table to plant ourselves on the sofa.

It was Friday night and the start of the weeklong February winter school break. For a change, my daughter did not need to go do her homework right away. So this was one of the few occasions when we could gather as a family after dinner to watch TV. We don’t usually watch sports except for the major tennis tournaments. But since the Jeremy Lin story exploded in the media, the Linsanity tsunami has swept us up along. There are so many compelling elements to this story: of struggle and perseverance, of luck or as we Christians believe – providence, of a young man’s growing faith in God, of ethnic and spiritual pride. In Jeremy Lin’s example, I have found many opportunities to talk to my daughter about life lessons.

I feel an urgency to talk to her about life lessons because I’ve become aware that times like these, watching TV or eating dinner as a family, will become scarcer in six months. In six months, she will be entering college and taking her first steps towards independent living; she will face a panoply of choices that the college experience promises to offer. As a parent my hope and fervent prayer is that we will have equipped her well to make wise decisions.

And judging from the continuing media spotlight on Lin and the Knicks’ up-and-down roller coaster performance, I won’t soon run out of life lessons to discuss.

Views of Brown University

We visited Brown University last April. As you can see, it was a beautiful spring day. I thought I had lost these photos so I’m delighted that they have re-surfaced. Hope you enjoy the views of this Ivy League campus in Providence, Rhode Island.

“What Are You Going to Study?”

Hands down that’s the most commonly asked question of my daughter after learning where she is attending college this fall.  It’s a logical follow-up question and it also signals a shift of attention to the next stage in her young life.  That question is just as important as where one goes to college; some would argue it is more important.

Right now when asked, she just shrugs; she doesn’t know.  Recently, the value of a liberal arts education has come under scrutiny (see articles like this), especially in a struggling economy.  But for someone who doesn’t know what she wants to study, a liberal arts education makes sense.  It will give her a well-rounded foundation of knowledge from which she can discover and pursue her interests while developing critical thinking, analytical, and communication skills (if that sounds like it came from a college brochure, I think I have internalized all that marketing spiel; I didn’t plagiarize, honest.)  Seriously though, the choice of major is frequently intertwined with later career choices and these days, what parents of college students, even the most relaxed ones, do not fret just an iota, about whether their children will be able to find meaningful employment?

When it comes to our children, there’s always something over which to wring our hands.  One mother recently related how her college-aged son talked about perhaps becoming a musician: “We’re going to need a talk with him about that.”  From the roll of her eyes and the skeptical tone in her voice, I can tell that there will be many “talks” in that family.  I suspect there may be such “talks” with my daughter in future about career choices and I suppose I could worry about that now.  But I will fight that urge.  I believe a liberal arts education will help her uncover her strengths and passions almost as much as I believe in a God that has created her for purposes the discovery of which will be her life journey.  So I will trust and not worry.