University of Central Florida

Last year was Andrew’s senior year. As such, he spent a lot of time thinking about and planning his college future. In typical Andrew fashion, an early part of the process included the creation of an Excel spreadsheet. Over time, the spreadsheet grew, and additional columns were added. By the end of his senior year, he had 29 colleges in the spreadsheet. Of those, he applied to 12. We visited 6 colleges, all in Florida. He was accepted by 5. With 5 offers on the table, the most difficult decision of choosing one started. Of all the colleges that made offers, UCF put in the most effort to attract Andrew. For example, in March, UCF invited all of us to attend the National Merit Finalists reception. They also offered a free laptop computer, and they have a nice Honors program.

After graduation, we went on vacation to Utah. While there, Andrew had the opportunity to choose a dorm room. So, while driving back to Salt Lake City, Andrew chose his future home.

The next step was to select a move-in day. On June 8, Andrew booked a move-in time for Friday, August 19 at 10:15 AM. Leading up to that day, Susan researched everything that a new student may possibly need. So, when the day finally arrived, we struggled to fit everything into the bed of the truck.

Move-in day was on my off-Friday, so I was able to help with the move. We drove to UCF and found Parking Garage E. We were told that we should arrive within the 15-minute appointment window, park on the first floor, unload our stuff, then move to another floor. In reality, there was nowhere to park on the first floor, so we parked on the fourth floor. Andrew went to check-in and got his student ID card programmed and picked up his room key. Susan and I went to borrow a pair of carts to haul stuff in.  The parking garage had two elevators, but one was malfunctioning – typical.

After two trips, we had all of Andrew’s stuff piled up in the common living area of his suite. He is living in Tower 3 in a suite containing four private bedrooms, two shared bathrooms, and a shared kitchen and living area. Andrew’s room had the bare minimums – a desk, dresser, and bed.

Andrew's desk, overlooking the soccer field

Andrew and I returned the carts while Susan started cleaning. While she cleaned, we remembered that SpaceX had a launch scheduled. Andrew and I walked to the Student Lounge on his floor and looked to the east. We saw the rocket briefly as it passed through the clouds. Once Susan finished cleaning, we started thinking about how to lay out the room.

There was one important thing Andrew wanted to do next. He needed to pick up his free laptop from the Technology Product Center before it closed. So, we walked across campus, entered the building, and told them we were there to get the laptop. Andrew showed them his ID and they handed him a $1,500 gaming PC.

With the PC issue handled, there was still one thing left to do. I wanted to get Andrew his own refrigerator for his room so he could be sure to have food and drinks available before morning classes. Susan knew the mother of a former New Covenant student who no longer needed his dorm refrigerator. Better yet, he was willing to give it to Andrew. And even better, he lived a couple miles from UCF. We arranged to pick it up before 4:30. When we went to pick it up, I passed the entrance to his neighborhood. After turning around and turning around again, I entered the neighborhood before the right neighborhood. DOH! Eventually I found the correct entrance and we picked up the refrigerator.

Back at the dorm, we ended up rotating the bed and moving it to the center of the long wall. Then we put the refrigerator in the corner. Andrew put together some storage boxes and put boxes under his bed.

Andrew builds some storage units

With the bed in a nice place, next we had to make it. The mattress was, to say the least, a joke. It was about 4 inches and covered in vinyl. There’s no way anyone could sleep good on that. But Susan had a plan. We covered the mattress with a foam topper and a mattress pad, then wrapped the whole thing inside an allergy encasement. After that we put on the sheets and blankets.

Andrew with his setup nearly complete

While we were wrapping up, a killer thunderstorm wreaked havoc on campus. We hung around awhile until it calmed down. Before we left, we had a pretty nice arrangement for Andrew, and all the boxes were out of the living area.

Today, we returned to campus to finish the move-in process. We needed to take Andrew shopping and get a feel for where his classes were located.

Our first stop was Costco. I was hoping to find a decent tablet that Andrew could use for his digital books to carry to class. We looked at the iPad Mini and a few Samsung models. We ended up buying the Samsung Galaxy Tab A8. Thank you, AT&T, for the $200 gift card. :-)

Our next stop was Publix. Andrew picked all his favorite drinks and snacks to load up his new refrigerator.

Andrew and Susan with a cart full of groceries

Back on campus, our final task was to explore the campus and locate all of his classrooms. As I walked around campus, my fondness for the circular layout of the buildings continued to grow. Tower 3 is northeast of the center. There’s a long grass mall that leads from the Towers to the inner ring, with the Student Union and cypress marsh in the center. Some of his classes are located in traditional classrooms and others are in auditoriums. One class is in the Honors building, but the building was locked, so we couldn’t see the classroom.

Afterwards, we returned to Andrew’s dorm room and said our good-byes. There’s now no denying it, our son has grown up and gone off to college.