Dave Richards: Freshman fears, freedom same for dad and daughter

Erie Times-News features writer Dave Richards.ERIE TIMES-NEWS

I can think of just a handful of times in life when I was terrified. One was the day my grandparents dropped me off at the University of Illinois for my freshman year.

I never felt so alone as when the door shut and they hit the road for the 180-mile trip back to Waukegan, the only home I'd ever known.

I looked around my Spartan dorm room with its cement walls, lumpy beds, and plain-as-Wheaties desk. I would have cried, but the sound would have echoed throughout Hopkins Hall.

That was 1974, when staying in touch wasn't so easy. My parents decided calling home was too expensive, so we wrote letters. My room had no TV, but so what? Champaign, Ill. had just three channels. Cable had yet to arrive.

I wish I could show my daughter a photo of that dismal dorm room and convey the emptiness I felt the first few days when I didn't know a soul, couldn't find my way around campus and was convinced I'd flunk out within hours of arriving.

I'm so glad it won't be like that for Bette.

This is 2012, not the Watergate era, so her semi suite at the Highlands at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania features the modern flourishes she expects: cable TV, her own sleeping area, air conditioning, Wi-Fi.

She'll start college with a best friend for a roommate, which will help, and she knows if she needs us she can text, e-mail or try the old-fashioned way -- owl post. Whoops. I mean phone call. I still remember reading "Harry Potter" to her.

Bette also arrives with her own car, so she can visit us whenever she wants. She's not stranded, like I was.

As far as I can tell, Bette starts this next great chapter of her life with every advantage, except a personal assistant like Alfred.

That said, regardless of comfort and technological advances, college is still a new frontier, one with its own challenges for every generation.

I don't remember feeling any particular pressure to succeed upon entering Illinois, but today's kids? They start in debt with college loans, and they know competition for jobs after they graduate is more intense than ever.

When just an extra semester costs thousands, it's harder to justify staying longer or switching majors midstream.

I didn't work until my junior year. But today's students juggle work and school; they have no choice.

I also had less opportunity to goof off. Would I have buckled down as much if I had Facebook, Netflix, Angry Birds, video games and a smart phone? I wonder.

So college, in its own way, will be just as exciting, scary, adventurous and momentous for Bette as for any student anywhere in any time, including knee-knocking me, back in the medieval age.

Fasten your seat belt, Bette. You're in for a ride.

