Bell's Open House From The Other Side

Bellarmine had their open house over the weekend. For the past few weeks, Jake had been looking forward to this day. Earlier in the school year, he signed up to be a shadow guide. As the name implies, these guides have potential Bell freshmen tag along with them on a typical school day in order to give them a first hand look at the life of a Bell student. During open house, these guides are tapped to assist in the various activities for the day.

With a few days before the open house, Jake has not heard back whether or not his services were needed for the open house. I guess, despite being a shadow guide, not everyone is called back to help during open house. He was beginning to get disappointed.

On the day before open house, he got an email informing  him (and others) about some guides backing out, which left open spots to fill. This was the cue for those not previously called to suit up for open house. A quick email reply confirmed his participation. Jake was a happy camper.

Just past 8:30am, I dropped him off at Bellarmine. He had lots of time to prepare and find out what he needed to do. Open house wasn't to start till 10am.

At around 1:30pm, the wife and I picked him up, and went to Left Bank for lunch. On the way, he was telling us how his day went. He didn't have to show the campus around or man a post on campus. Instead, he was roaming around, answering questions from potential students and families.

As the conversation went on, the wife got a ping on her phone. It was a posting on FB by Dr. Ben. It showed a picture of Jake standing at the quad, having a conversation with a family. When I saw the photograph, I smiled and felt proud at how responsible my boy had become. To think that we were on the other side of this conversation just a year ago. Can you imagine how quickly things have changed?

Since Jake had volleyball practice later in the afternoon and we were in the neighborhood, we decided to just hang around Santana Row. A quick stop at Pink Berry helped kill some more time. By 5pm, he was at practice, and we headed home. A couple hours later, I was back on the road, solo, to take my boy home.

Note:  Author wishes to acknowledge Dr. Ben Chew for the use of the photograph in this post.