Literary Mama Rewind: College

Welcome to Literary Mama Rewind! Every few weeks we’ll round up some of our favorite essays, stories, poems, columns and reviews from the Literary Mama archives relating to a particular theme. As fall arrives, so do the students. Some mothers are watching their young ones leave home, some are returning to classes themselves, and others are teaching at universities. Whatever college means to you, you’ll find your experiences echoed in these stories from other Literary Mamas.

• Coloring in College by Dawn Leas in Poetry
  My twins sit next to me in a college/ classroom. To blend in I/ wear hip-huggers,/ clogs, a cowl-neck sweater.

• Last week Charlotte went to college by Kim Triedman in Poetry
  somehow I’ve managed to eat/ up that space/ that morning space that yesterday belonged to/ shrieks and to quarrels, eyeliner

• Op-Ed: Raising Children on a College Campus by Mallory McDuff on the Blog
  “I couldn’t do it,” a friend said last week. “I just couldn’t live where I teach. And what are you going to do when your daughters hit high school and want to hang out in the dorms or smoke pot in the pastures?”

• Gigi Hartzheim’s College Application Personal Statement by Mindela Ruby in Fiction
  Prompt 5. Topic of your choice. 250 words minimum.  My first impression of the men’s shelter was War of the Smells. Gag-strong disinfectant versus a mildew, sweat, and excrement triple threat.

• Emily, Leaving by Penny Feeny in Fiction
  It’s hard to tell which of the three is the most apprehensive about Emily’s departure: the child, who has been so cossetted and indulged, at the prospect of slumming with a crowd of strangers, or the bereft parents at the thought of their curiously silent house. Emily trundles noise wherever she goes — whether the chirp of phone conversations, the blare of rock music, the howl of dismay at homework going badly, or the furious erratic pace of her piano practice.

• The Good Girls Go to College by Peggy Hong from the Column Far From Cool
  “You have a fake ID?” I interject, real casual-like. This is a new one. There’s nothing in the college guidebooks about your kid showing you her new fake ID as you visit her in college for the first time.

• Empty Nest, Day One by Ona Gritz from the Column Doing it Differently
  When it came time to help Ethan through the college selection process, my ex and I took a divide-and-conquer approach. I flew with our boy to Ann Arbor for a tour of the University of Michigan. Richard drove him to Charlottesville to check out the University of Virginia.

• Kindergarten to College by Carol Zapata-Whelan from the Column Finding Magic Mountain
  As I see it these days, it’s a short distance from kindergarten to college, getting ready for a new identity away from home.