Last night I received some news from Paul, my son in college. The news came by text message. He doesn’t call home too often as he belongs to the texting generation. I fully expect that one day (years from now please!) I will look at my phone and see the announcement that he is getting married. I hope I’m wrong about that.
The news from last night is that he is going to minor in Arabic. That by itself was no surprise since he is in his third year of Arabic studies. Another text stated that all he had to do was write a 25-page thesis and the minor was his. He was just one class short for an Arabic major, and that class wasn’t being offered this semester.
After relaying the news to my husband, we decided that a phone call was justified. We had questions. How did he find out about this? Why did he decide this now? Paul said that he checked into the double major and found that the minor was the best he could do at this point.
While adding the minor is a good thing, this event raised my old fears about this man-child. Who checks into double majors their final semester of college? Could he not have done this sooner? Can he handle another thesis?
As an honors history major, he is required to write a 40-to-80 page thesis before he graduates. He spent the summer gathering his research for his topic. When he returned to school after the Christmas break, he was determined to write a few hours every morning since his classes were in the afternoon. When we asked how the writing was coming along, he said that he hadn’t really started that yet.
He didn’t seem worried. The history thesis is due in April. The smaller thesis for Arabic is due a couple of weeks later. Plenty of time to crank out that 25-page paper, he said. I know that he has written plenty of ten-page papers over the course of the evening. I think that, like me, he composes in his head before committing his words to paper or electronic document. Still, I don’t think he can pull off a 40-plus-page missive in a couple of nights. He will only have one chance to get it right.
Letting him go to do this on his own might be harder for me than actually doing it is for him. Well, maybe not, but it will be hard just the same. I hope he’s not in denial. I hope he’s not over-committing himself. I hope he can find a job when he graduates. I hope I don’t make myself crazy worrying about him.
Paul, Paul, he's our man! If he can't do it, no one can!
ReplyDeleteBetter to declare a minor late than never. How do they know what they want when they're so young? No consequences to trying, right?
That's a lotta writing. And a lotta worrying. Go, Team Paul!