Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Those Kids Entering College


Our babysitter of the last 5 years is going off to college this week. It’s strange because in some odd way it feels as if my own kid is going off to school; we’ve known her and her family for years.

My daughter was pretty upset about it for a few weeks but finally moved into the “acceptance” phase when she created some artwork for our college-bound sitter this past weekend for her to display in her new dorm room.
I wished I had taken a picture of it, as I do with most of her artwork, but it’s basically a picture of a dolphin with an ice cream cone waving with its friends saying, “See you at Thanksgiving!” And they’re all wearing pink pilgrim hats and necklaces.
The dolphin is supposed to be a self-portrait as my daughter is still planning on becoming a dolphin when she grows up. In fact, when I ask her what college has a dolphin major she just answers matter-of-factually with, “(duh!) Any college in Hawaii.”

At our sitters going away to college party with a few of her friends and family, the adults started talking about how strange it is that these kids were all born in 1992, which is a bit disturbing because that doesn’t seem that long ago at all.
In fact, I still have perfectly usable clothes in my closet that are from circa 1992. My wife might find the term “usable” debatable, but I beg to differ.

This time of year I always find that the annual Beliot Mindset list highly informative. Basically that’s the yearly list reminding adults how young these kids actually are and how old we have gotten in such a short amount of time. Here are some interesting tidbits from it, with of course some of my own commentary added here and there.

A Few Interesting Facts About the Class of 2014
  1. Korean made Hyundai cars actually work now as opposed to being broken down on the side of the road. I still wouldn’t buy one as I use to own a 1989 Excel that loved to break down.
  2. Yugo? What’s that?
  3. They’ve never written in cursive. I just tried now and still remember. Now I trying to think when they last time I've actually used it...
  4. Email is just too slow, and they seldom if ever use snail mail.
  5. They use cell phones to tell them the time, no need for a wristwatch.
  6. They have never worried about a Russian missile strike on the U.S.
  7. Kurt Cobain is now on the classic oldies station.
  8. Fergie is a pop singer, not a princess.
  9. They never twisted the coiled handset wire aimlessly around their wrists while chatting on the phone.
  10. Computers have never lacked a CD-ROM disk drive.
  11. Their parents’ favorite TV sitcoms have always been showing up as horrible movies. The only exemption: the Brady Bunch movie.
Some Sourced from Beloit College Mindset List

What other things can you think of?

8 comments:

ericdbolton said...

That some good stuff... I'll have to remember this website when my son graduates from high school in three years..

And Hawaii does have good aquatic mammal schools..

Amrita said...

Ho Tony,

My niece is entering College this next week too. She would love rhis list- I will pass it on to her with your blessings of course (as we say in India)

Oooohhh little Princess will miss her babt istter. She must be a good kind one too.

i wanted to be a mermaid when I grew up- was pretty disappointed when I truned out like this. LOL.

painted maypole said...

i know i have at least one skirt in my closet that's from 1992, i remember wearing it to work that summer after I graduated from high school.

Unknown said...

I wish I would have seen this last week. We had some teen and young adult actors working for me on a video shoot, and everything we referenced, they had no idea what we were talking about. NO IDEA. Of course I am so senile I can't remember any of it right now to tell you.

Sue said...

I would have loved to see that dolphin picture!

Anonymous said...

They have never had a beloved cassette "eaten". Doubt any of them have made a long distance call or accepted charges for one. Life when the only reality tv was the news. Coffee cost 25 or 50 cents, not $4.00........

Steve Orris said...

They have never known a McDonalds that did not have McNuggets.

Anonymous said...

Too old for "Saved By The Bell!"