Spreading my wings

Talk about it

“Until you spread your wings you’ll have no idea how far you can fly,” an anonymous writer once penned. This quote speaks for us future college students in Carlton County. We have all “crossed our t’s and dotted our i’s” to be accepted to the colleges we desired throughout our senior year.

I can say applying to Bemidji State has been an interesting experience for my family and me.

Being the first child in my family to set out for college, my parents and siblings were a bit heavyhearted about me leaving, but they were tremendously overjoyed for me to step out into the wide world. My dad, an alumnus of Bemidji State, had given all the advice I would need while attending his former college. Talk about taking an unexpected full circle. Bemidji State was low on my radar for colleges to attend, but after seriously debating Jamestown College in North Dakota or Waldorf College in Iowa, I eventually began to consider better tuition and, of course, the fear of homesickness.

Bemidji State was alluring to me. With a promising English department and teaching program, I knew I would be following my father’s steps to become a teacher.

I know I will never understand what my parents and every parent in Carlton County feel when sending their children to college, until I have one of my own. I know the moment that I set foot on the Bemidji campus, I am not a five-foot-tall, bob-cut 18-year-old, my parents are watching a toddler with waist-length hair and big dimples sprouting her wings, and leaving for the big wondrous world.

Thank you mom and dad for everything you have ever done for me – from driving me to sports practice, giving me advice, providing me with food, a wonderful home, and two amazing siblings. You both blessed me with an incredible life and many gifts. Thank you!!

To the staff and readers of the Pine Journal, thank you for your support for a budding writer. It means a lot me that people enjoyed reading my articles.

I wish you all a very fond farewell. I’ll be back to writing more articles for Carlton County next summer.

Tags: local columns, education