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I truly believe that the college visit’s we take with Adam are as much for us as they are for him.  He is going so he can check out the campus, teachers, dorms, and the overall activities that he can experience in college.   Jason and I are going to see if it will be a safe environment and a good place where we feel he will get a good life experience as well as a great education.  At first the thought of Adam even thinking about going to a college in another state was unbearable, the vary mention of him going and looking at KU would start me crying.  But last week we went and looked at KU and I have to admit that it doesn’t seem that scary anymore, if that is the college that he does decide on.

We went to KU for one of their Jayhawk Day visits.  We started with a group of about 100 other student and their parents.  To get us all warmed up they had the entire group listen to the rock chalk Jayhawk KU chant and then we all waved the wheat.  This is a tradition they do at KU when they know they are about to win a game.  Adam is not the type of person who likes to do this kind of stuff so as we were sitting down I asked so is KU out now since they made us do that?  He just smiled and said NO MOM.

Our second part of the visit was a walking tour of the campus. We toured the campus center, dorms, and the rec. center and then had lunch in one of the three cafeterias that Adam would be eating in.   I have to admit it is a beautiful campus the only bad thing is that it is very hilly and that day it was 107 degrees out, so walking the hills was not fun for anyone.  After lunch we had two hours to kill before our appointment to visit with the Aero-Space Engineering professor.  So we went and checked out the town and drove down Mass. Street to see all the local hang-outs and other things that Lawrence has to offer.  Lawrence is a very nice and clean town, tons of restaurants and retail shops.  If he does decide to go to KU I know I will have a good time when we come down to visit him and make a weekend out of it.

When we got back on campus we still had a while to kill before the professor was in so we went and checked out the engineering department’s library.  Jason was able to get a quick nap in while Adam and I talked and looked around.  Hopefully Jason will be the only Shafer sleeping in that library.  Finally it was time to meet the professor.  Adam asked more questions than I thought he would and by that I mean he asked TWO!  He is making a huge life decision and only asks two questions, so of course Jason and I started in with our own questions.  We left the interview with all of our questions answered and happy with the outcome.

On our way home we were asking Adam what he thought and if he still wanted to go into Aero-Space and we got his usual answer “I don’t know – Yah”.  It was a lot to take in in two days but the trip was definitely worth it.  August 13^th we go and visit UNL, COME ON NEBRASKA I AM ROOTING FOR YOU!

About the author: Mikki Shafer

Mikki moved to Hastings in 1993 to attend Central Community College where she received her associate’s degree in Hotel/Motel Restaurant Management. While in college she met Jason Shafer and they were married in 1995. Mikki works for the Hastings Area Chamber of Commerce as the Membership Coordinator. Mikki is the mother of three children Adam -17, Kaleb - 15 and Jalyn - 12.