Editorial: All our firsts

They have been there for every first.

First play dates, first days of school and even first college acceptance letters. For many, college is the first time their parents aren’t there for every misstep and achievement. As students prepare to embark on this step toward independence, there seems to be a last for everything. The last Target run with mom, the last home-cooked meal and the last sleep in a childhood room, possibly with a nightlight turned on. 

As college life unfolds, students find creative loopholes to make it feel more like home. Waffle ice cream sandwiches in Rathbone almost resemble a homemade dessert. Late nights in residence hall lounges remind them of movie nights with their families. 

Family Weekend can represent the best of both of students’ worlds.  

As families shuffle onto campus, students add the finishing touches to their “I Forgot” lists. Proud families are mistaken for tour groups as Linderman Library becomes a tourist attraction. Students speed-clean their dorms as they prepare to show off their new lives to their families. Soon, it becomes apparent how much they have grown since they waved farewell to their parents on move-in day.

Family Weekend seems to fall at the perfect time — just a few weeks after Pacing Break, when many students return to the comfort of home. However, Family Weekend is the true test of independence. 

From our first year to senior year, students’ parents are invited to meet the Lehigh family we have chosen to share our four years with. 

Families visit and watch as we complete our trial period for adulthood. For the first time, our roles are reversed. There is a slight chance that moms don’t know where everything is (a once unheard of possibility). Students introduce their families to the routes they walk every day and the friends that walk alongside them. 

Families flood residence halls, reminiscing on their younger days. 

For parents, this is their first true glimpse of all they had envisioned for their child. Students’ lives at Lehigh are a tangible example of what their parents have raised them through up to this point.  

Throughout awkward middle school phases and the grueling college application process, they were there. And for just one weekend, they can finally be a part of the life that is a result of all of the hard work they put into our maturity. 

We have been able to build our own lives at Lehigh because of the lives parents gave us throughout our childhood. 

Thanks to our families, we have the chance to navigate our studies and build lives for ourselves with the comfort of knowing that home is just a phone call away. They were there for all of our firsts, and now this is the first time we have a new and different world to share with them. 

We stand at the crossroads between nostalgia for what once was and the excitement for the new life we have built. We long for the comfort of home, yet enjoy the freedom of college. We call our parents when we do our first loads of laundry, but plan out our weeks like 9-5 adults. Luckily, we don’t have to choose between growing up and remaining stagnant. We are given the chance to navigate our lives at college independently, all while knowing there’s always a Target run in our near future.