Today is my 40th birthday, and it’s been a good one. In many ways it was like any other day. I went to work (though, interestingly, many students asked if I were leaving early, if they were going to have a substitute teacher, etc.–just wishful thinking on their part); I attended Daniel’s open house; and [...]

This summer has been a whirlwind. It came and went much more quickly than I had expected. Several of the projects I had hoped to knock out were left untouched, which is a little disappointing. However, it’s the first summer in a long, long time when I haven’t felt overwhelmed. Busy, but not overwhelmed. A [...]

I think Lucy grew up and went to work for Millsaps College in the Admissions and Financial Aid departments—and I feel like Charlie Brown. Part of the reason I asked Devin to apply to so many colleges (31: apparently a Fairview High School record) was so that he’d have lots of options. After visiting a [...]

According to this article in the Waco Tribune-Herald, Danny Passmore was arrested for aggravated sexual assault of a child. I always get sad when I hear about these kinds of things–mostly for the victims. I’ve worked with young people as a teacher and youth minister my entire adult life, and I see the devastating effects [...]

I was going back through some of my notes from our college search process with Devin, and here are a few things we were told that I found interesting: First, regarding athletic scholarships: 118 colleges play NCAA Division I football, and 238 play Division III. Certainly, we hear more about the NCAA teams, because so [...]

We decided to visit one more school this weekend: Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi. Devin received a partial academic scholarship there early on, but we never heard from any of the football coaches–so it kind of fell off our radar. Come to find out, the coaching staff has changed. The new head coach just arrived [...]

So it’s been more than a month since Devin and I took our little college tour around the northeast and midwest—which was just incredible in almost every way. We’ve narrowed down the leading contenders—schools that really want him and that he’s really interested in attending—from our original 31 to about five: Lycoming in Pennsylvania Ohio [...]

The final stop on Devin’s college tour was Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey. I’d certainly heard of Princeton; I’ve always thought of it as being in the top five academic colleges in the country. I’ve been to Princeton Theological Seminary, too, but the seminary isn’t related to the university at all–both institutions are quite [...]

Stop 4 on Devin’s college tour was Lycoming College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Here’s the interesting thing about how this tour has gone: it’s just gotten better and better. Both Devin and I have liked each place we’ve been just a little better than the place before it. The other cool thing, though, is that he’d [...]

Stop number three on Devin’s college tour was at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio. Our first reaction to the weather was pretty negative. It was quite cold and windy–apparently not unusual for several months there. We also ran late because we got lost–three different times–even though we asked for directions twice. All of that [...]