A College Tour

Frog has been looking at one college for a long time.  She has her dreams and her goals.  One great goal that she has is how to lower her debt impact from increasing college prices.

My Frog has been checking out ROTC.  Their scholarship program is great!  We should know.  Tall Man used an ROTC Scholarship for his education.  It has been an awesome career and lifestyle.  I have always looked at it on the scholarship side of it ----- yes, that is right, the money.

We went for her formal interview portion last week.  We skipped off to my alma mater of Western Illinois University.  They have great new facilities for the Military Science Department….gorgeous….and yes, I think her interview went great!

She loved the campus and the ROTC facilities so much, she voiced out loud that she might apply to Western!  Well, if you want to apply to WIU, let’s look at the other department you will be spending lots of time in.  The Art Department. 

What awesome memories hit me as the first waft of chemicals from the Printmaking classrooms overtook me.  Ahhhh, to be home.  We saw the light on in the litho room and I got a bonus surprise!  Don Crouch was checking out some fresh prints his student assistants just pulled off the press.

I introduced Frog and explained I was showing her the department after her interview over at ROTC.  We continued to discuss the current program and current professors, but Don kept turning and commenting to Frog, “You wanna be a soldier?”

I threw in what a great scholarship program they have and what a great advantage to go to school through that program.  Frog stood silent and just watched the interaction.  Later she mentioned, in passing, how many students only apply for the money, however, even if she doesn’t get the scholarship, this program really interests her and she plans to pursue this path.

Thinking on this comment for a couple of days, and watching her prepare for her next adventure at the high school, I have a new view of my daughter.  The next time I hear the comment, “You wanna be a soldier?”  I now have a different response, a new enlightenment, a change of perspective given to me by my daughter……

“No. She wants to be a leader.”