Taking My Brother to College

Friday, August 10th, we loaded up the cars (ok, we really only loaded up Dillon's Pontiac Vibe...he didn't have near the stuff either my sister or I took to college!) and drove down to Columbus, GA to drop Dillon off at college.  I could not believe how fast this day got here!!  I feel like I was just typing out the blog about him graduating high school and already we were taking him off to school.  I was very happy to ride with him on the way down. 

 Before we pulled out of the driveway....sure gonna miss this guy!!

Once we got to the campus of Columbus State, we had to find Dillon's dorm.  Ahem.  More like apartment complex.  GA Southern needs to take a note, this place was awesome!!  And it was a legitimate dorm, but just set up totally like an apartment complex...complete with pool and everything!  We had to wait a little bit for him to get checked in and find his room. 

Here is Dillon heading off to find out exactly where he would be spending at least this year of his next four years in Columbus. 

Can you believe this place?!  I didn't take too many pictures of the inside (ok, none) but here is the layout.....you walk into a common living room with a couch and love seat and coffee table.  Dillon's room is the first on the left.  He doesn't even have to share a room with anyone!!!!  He had a bed, a desk, a dresser and a couple shelf units.  And then, attached to the room, is his own bathroom and walk-in closet!!!!!   Upon seeing these things, I was really wishing for a college do-over.  I shared the tiniest space with my roommate and we had to walk down the hall to use a community bathroom.  Yeah, you guessed it, I did a lot of gagging my freshman year of college, haha.  Dillon won't have to walk down the hall in his shower shoes and robe to take a shower....what a lucky guy.  He has 5 other roommates, two of which we met before we left. At the back of the "dorm" there is a common kitchen, complete with fridge and oven/stove and sink, plus a table and chairs.  No dishwasher though, so I can take a small bit of joy in that.  Not like guys probably care about those things.  He even has a cute little back porch off the kitchen.   

After we moved his stuff into the room, we headed over to check out the campus a little bit.  The recreation center seems awesome....the pool is incredible!  The recreation center at GA Southern has a nice pool now, but when I went there, they sure didn't have one at all.  Oh well.  No sense comparing every inch of Columbus St to my college experience....my college days are looonngg past!!  We hit up the bookstore for some CSU gear...more of which will be purchased in the future, I am sure.  :-) 

Great family pic (minus Michael....he had to work half the day and then go and pick up our moving truck for our big move the next day.  We sure did miss him though). 

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this pic of my and my siblings.  I am proud to say that I did NOT cry when we dropped him back off at his room and said good-bye for the last time.  I will, however, admit that my throat felt like it was going to explode from how much I wanted to.  Especially when Sophia was giving her uncle a big good-bye hug.  We don't go a day without at least talking about Uncle Dillon, or pretend calling him on the phone....I know she is going to miss seeing him often SO much.  I am too, but I am very very excited for how much fun he is going to have over the next several years.  I am a teensy bit jealous even!!  Not that I really want to hit the books again (which I also hope he will be doing a lot of, haha) but just to maybe experience some of the 'fun' college things.  Ah, well, that time has passed for me.  Very much looking forward to hearing all the fun and entertaining stories and memories that Dillon creates during his time at Columbus State.  I love you, little bro!!