Hmmm, I have been all over the place, but have not been blogging my adventures at all! Where to start: The fall was absolutely crazy!! Did not do any races at all. Pulled myself out of every single one of them. That turned out to be a good thing because really... my body needed a little break. The last part of the year has been very light with training, but mostly physical therapy for my hip. It's much better and i have managed to escape invasive surgery thus far.
In October, I drove all over God's creation looking at colleges and universities with James. He had a list of schools he wanted to check out and he had a few schools contact him for swimming. The list had us going to University of Delaware, George Mason and all the way out to this little tiny Baptist School in Philippi West Virginia called Alderson Broaddus College or AB. AB is a D-II school, a far cry from the larger D-I swim schools he was initially looking at. James quickly realized that swimming at a D-I school, swimming is the emphasis. The schools wanted him to change his major and not take any classes that had science labs. Hard to do when he was thinking about going into the medical field. I had never heard of this small AB program and happened to mention it at work one day and one of the PA's touted about it -- "Wow that's a great school, I almost went there." Reading and learning more about it, I realized there were some really good positives about it. Great Physician's Assistant program, excellent Nursing and Allied Health programs, and apparently 100% of their pre-med grads get into their first choice Medical Schools! So they all do well on the MCAT's. But still... I'd never heard of it....On paper, I loved University of Delaware, but of course this is not about my choice, it's James's choice, right? So off we head out in early October. The exact day we left we haven't even left the state, when Kevin called us in the car. There was a letter in the mail from AB (James had already applied early). Well of course, "OPEN IT!" I was thinking that there was something we might need for his interview and tour or some other item, time change who knows. IT WAS an ACCEPTANCE letter!! With a scholarship for ACADEMICS and a partial SWIM scholarship!! James and I were skeptical? Anyhow, we started our drive out of state having that heavily on our minds. James was so excited to be the first of his friends and classmates with an acceptance letter. Wow! Our first scheduled stop was at Delaware.
We both loved Delaware (I think I liked it more) on paper. James had not hit it off well with the coach so that was a little bit of a harbinger of how we would leave the school. The tour was with a pre-med major. He was exhausted, had just finished an exam and was not happy about his MCAT scores, saying that he would have to take them again. Not really what we wanted to hear. On campus, all the kids looked tired --- lots and lots of students milling around on the change of classes, but no one really talking, hushed movement to the next class or building. The student union was social, but still very subdued. I was thinking...hmmmm well -- it is mid-term week for these students. Probably a bad week to visit. We walked 10 miles on that campus!! I was wearing a pedometer that is fairly accurate.
George Mason in Fairfax, VA was our next stop. Now, completely opposite to U of D, this was a very upbeat and social school. Has a lot of academic and research opportunities similar to Delaware in that regard. We also found out that in swimming, GMU and U of D are rivals! Interesting and the first meet of the year was going to between the two. Interesting. While James hit it off with the coach initially, he was quickly being persuaded to change his major. The coach was not enthusiastic about coaching athletes with science labs and felt it really interfered with swimming. Wanted James to switch to history or politics. James stood his ground. I was proud. He wanted to follow his career goals more than swimming. He realized that really, his heart wasn't all about swimming. Although swimming is a big part of his life, perhaps D-II was a better fit for him. So I am was thinking that we would go back to the drawing board and re-look at a few other D-II schools maybe some schools in Springfield. Anyhow, this was good progress. The campus was huge and vibrant, very social. It really is a great school. The downer was, it is somewhat of a commuter school and many of the students head home every weekend or even every night. Swimming, although he could swim there, it would be a struggle as evidenced by the rigors of the coaching, time commitment and the travel. James decided that he would still consider the application process to there. He wasn't completely turned off and did like the campus. There would be great academic opportunities.
Off we drove to AB. It was a long drive! And Mountains and hills, beautiful scenery! I had no idea how beautiful West VA was. It reminded me a little of Maine (without the coast) and a lot like Vermont. We were meeting with the school for a Monday, but arrived there on a Sunday night. (We stayed in DC an extra day to poke around and wanted to go out to Mount Vernon. Very nice diversion from all the school talk. We hit the school Sunday afternoon, we saw the brand new, gorgeous football stadium going in. we were also greeted by students outside walking together, talking, being social... generally happy, upbeat feel. There were kids out on a lawn throwing a Frisbee around, kids playing pass with lacrosse and soccer. It was nice! We went to the pool. Nice facility, not as nice as the D-I schools of course, but nice. I couldn't wait to see the allied health people the next day, academics and the other stuff. James commented that he liked the feel --- it was somewhat homey, a catholic church right on the corner (of the Baptist campus) and it was sitting high on a hill and you could look at the town down below. Mountains all around. Just Gorgeous!! It was peak foliage, too. The next day we were on our way to the admissions office for interview when we were met up with the coach. He escorted us to admissions, all around the campus, to our interview with the allied health offices and nursing. Woah. So nice, and then after all the academic stuff was done, he brought us over to the pool and his office for his talk. James was informed while he was at a D-II school swimming, he would still have a competitive swim program and significant swim commitment. He would also have to check in with an academic adviser for mandatory study 5 hours a week. No sign in- no meet to swim at. no pool time. He also was building the swim program there and was looking for a wide variety of talent. He had swimmers from out west, CA and everywhere coming to the school. There would be no confliction with labs. He even said that although his Wednesday labs would interfere with the swim team, he was going to hold another swim session for the kids that were in health, biology and chemistry majors. that was music to James's ears! (the mandatory study time was music to mine of course). There was a lot of academic assistance there and when we toured the academic buildings, all the professors offices were "open." we watched students walk in and sit down. They of course had office hours, but they were all readily available. They quoted the same of what we heard about their PA programs, PA students and also the nursing program and premed was highly regarded. It was all great stuff.
The next day we started our trek back home. I offered to stop at other schools on our way back home, in PA and in MA. James was not interested. "Mom, I want to go to AB." I kept explaining to James that he needed to rest on it and think about it more. Look at other programs, talk to other coaches. "No mom, this is it. I really liked it there. It's small, but big enough for me. I love it there." He did hit it off with the coach, too. The coach swam for Michigan. He's a newer coach, a young program... it probably is the right place for James. I really felt good there. I think of all the schools we have talked about over the months, if James was to succeed at any of them, I think he would do best at AB. It's kind of far away, and I am not ruling out the schools closer to home; they would absolutely be just as good. I am unsure that he would be as happy. And really for a person to succeed, they do need to be happy in their environment and I do believe that environment would be conducive to learning for James.
At thanksgiving, James gave his acceptance to AB. He will be attending there the fall of 2013. I can't believe it!
The holidays came and went. We were all sick at Christmas and missed going to my sister's house. I was sick the week before Thanksgiving too. But so far in 2013, we have been healthy.
I have had a lot of testing and such on my hip, a steroid injection and doing everything possible to avoid surgery. I've been back in the pool and on the bike. Not running, yet, but will be soon. I did run some off and on through the fall but not with comfort. I am hoping when I start up that it will be better and pain free.
Emily has been busy with basketball and ice skating. She hinted that she wanted to get back in the pool! I had a feeling that she missed it. I also think that next year, not having to swim in James's shadow, she will enjoy it much, much more. She really is a great swimmer as well. She won't have her brother to compare herself too and I think it will be more fulfilling for her. She is going to play lacrosse again this Spring. So that business will be starting up before long.
I will try to write more often this year and will update my race schedule when I figure it out. It's pretty up in the air. I have registered for a few races, but will have to see how the hip goes over the next several months to see if I will have a race season this year. I am confident that I will compete in a few races. There will not be any ironman races this year. But if this year goes well, perhaps 2014 will bring another 140.6. But for now, I am thinking a sprint tri, a few Olympic distance races and one very flat Half distance race. All pretty much local.
Happy New Year!
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