cards stacked, a Mini oops, petition this, and acceptances

I failed to explain that given my family-of-origin's obsession with Notre Dame, our family kinda/mostly hates Notre Dame. Both Coach and I grew up cheering for their sports and believing them to be THE SCHOOL. Having family members who can't see clearly because Notre Dame clouds their vision is irritating. 

*Adding:  we DO know some people that went to ND, like Curly's Irish dancing BFF's parents, who see things perfectly clearly, don't think too much of themselves, etc. and we are crazy about them. 

This is Lad. At Notre Dame
 when my brother
 Mike got married there in 2000.

My sister, Marie, has two daughters (a senior and a freshman) at ND. When her freshman daughter was accepted to Notre Dame, she wasn't sure she wanted to go there. It rocked Marie's world. So, she took daughter, my  parents, and my sister, Ann, to visit ND. She told my folks they weren't to try to sway daughter. Um, what? Their presence spoke volumes: HEY GUESS WHAT WE ALL WANT YOU TO DO? Of course, daughter came around. 

Marie is the same sister who took Middle daughter (Lad's age) to physically visit probably 20 campuses. In the end, she limited Middle to two schools. My mom supported this, JUST TELL MIDDLE SHE CAN ONLY GO HERE OR THERE. I've mentioned Kool-Aid, here it is, overflowing. 

Lad played football in college even though we weren't in favor. By October, he realized that he should be playing water polo. As a transfer student out east, he lost money he'd have gotten as a freshman. Anyway, when he was looking at schools my mom had told me to just tell him he couldn't do football. 

Neither school that Marie offered to Middle were schools she wanted to attend. Marie was incredibly distraught that Middle went away to college and refused to speak to she and her husband for A LONG TIME. The school Middle ended up at? Saint Mary's, across the street from ND. 

The "FIND A HUSBAND" comment by my dad:  he'd never have said that to Marie, because she was brilliant/attended ND. He reserves those kinds of remarks for the not-so-bright kids, which is why he'd never say it to Opal. 

Also, ND applicants who have a parent who went to ND are considered legacy, and have an advantage. Mini - not legacy.

Notre Dame allowed applicants to apply without sharing test scores. Mini did NOT share her scores. We assumed that this gave her even less of a chance. They SAID they didn't care about scores, but wouldn't they only accept people with impressive scores?  Didn't choosing not to submit look like you were hiding something?

In a nutshell, the cards were stacked against Mini. 

*****

MY SCHOOL & COACH'S SCHOOL  IN THE RUNNING:  WHAT ARE THE CHANCES?

Both Creighton and Saint Mary's accepted Mini and both gave her great scholarship money. SMC costs a bit more than Creighton, so tuition would end up about the same at either school. Creighton identified her as a candidate for a full ride called the Scotts Scholarship. She applied to the Scotts as well as some business thing for $5000.

She had to do a case study for the business scholarship and present it via zoom. When she came out of her zoom call, she had us eye-rolling.

Mini:  THAT WAS WEIRD. WHEN I WAS WAITING TO DO THE BUSINESS PRESENTATION, THEY REMINDED PEOPLE IN THE WAITING ROOM TO STICK AROUND IF WE WERE ALSO INTERVIEWING FOR THE SCOTTS. I WAS LIKE, WHOA -I HOPE THAT ISN'T ME, BECAUSE I'M NOT PREPARED, BUT IT WAS ME. SO I ALSO JUST HAD AN INTERVIEW FOR THE SCOTTS SCHOLARSHIP. OOPS. I THINK IT WENT WELL THOUGH. 

She hears about the Scotts mid February. 

I think it'd be fun for Mini to go to the same school as Tank. Tank disagrees. I believe he'd rather have a WHAT HAPPENS AT COLLEGE STAYS AT COLLEGE approach to school, and not have Mini around to keep an eye on him. She's not the 'report back to mom and dad' type, but try convincing him of that. 

PANIC OVER NOTHING:

Ed loves Indiana University, but Mini isn't sure the size is the right fit for her. Great business school, which is her intended major. December 17th, she got word that she was accepted to IU. It said the business school would let her know in 6 weeks. 

Long story, but she started to panic that she wouldn't get into the business school. She had until midnight the next night to petition. Why would a kid have to petition BEFORE she knew if she was in or not? Petitioning involved ANOTHER essay. Ed was home from college. He said it looked like she met the qualifications for direct admit, but the wording WAS weird. She couldn't access her account. What? My kid was unraveling before my eyes. 

I was ready for bed. Instead I sat in the study updating addresses for my Christmas cards while she prepared a petition to let her in the business school. We stayed up until almost 1 am. She wrote another essay. I edited it until it was the EXACT word count. I may be wordy here, but in a pinch I'm a pro, it turns out, at eliminating excess. 

Mini doesn't like to hug. I know, I know. I'm asking her to work on that. I made her hug me. She was shaking and worked up. 

Me:  OK, you've said this isn't likely going to be the school for you. It will ALL WORK OUT. If you don't get into the business school, so what. You have lots of good options. Breathe. *Mini pointed out that if she got the Evan's this might be her first choice, but that's a big IF.

Friday the 18th, she was still confused. IU portal closed, and without access she couldn't submit a petition. I told her to email and explain, copy her counselor. She called me by 10 am with a happy voice. IU responded. She WAS admitted to the business school, which is why her account wouldn't allow her to petition. They  hadn't let people know yet if they were in or not. Strange. 

AND THEN: 

That night she had the chills and that's when she got covid, and I HAD JUST HUGGED HER (but I didn't get sick). 

Saturday, Curly's birthday, we went to church at 5:30 pm. Minus the covid kid. I was leaving church and put the volume back up on my phone. Mini's BFF's mom had texted me during church: 

CONGRATS TO MINI ON GETTING INTO NOTRE DAME.

Wait, WHAT? Reg was standing at my elbow. He was like WAIT, WHAT DOES THAT SAY? I held my finger to my mouth:  SHHH. 

For the 1 minute drive home, I pretended I hadn't seen the text. I thought a letter would come in the mail, so this couldn't be right. Could it? We hadn't gotten a letter. I started pulling stuff out for dinner, my mind racing. A masked Mini entered the kitchen in her robe, holding her laptop: 

The grotto at Notre Dame. Mini and I
 posed here for a selfie
when we toured SMC. 

UM, I JUST GOT INTO NOTRE DAME. 

Mini:  SO I GUESS THE EMAILS CAME OUT YESTERDAY AFTERNOON. I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW THEY WERE EMAILING ACCEPTANCES. I JUST CHECKED MY EMAIL AND SAW THIS. 

Typical Mini. 

It's very surreal. She's excited, but unsure where she'll go. She hasn't heard from Wake Forest yet. 

WILL OPAL GO THERE?

Opal and Mini FREAKSIHLY ran into one another at Denny's when out with friends (houses not in the same town). Opal asked if Mini had any college decisions. Mini told her she got into ND. Opal congratulated her but said nothing aside from suggesting that Mini not tell my dad or he'd be all over her. Mini was like - yeah, not worried about that. 

We've got him right where we want him. "HEY, DAD, NOT SURE SHE'LL GO THERE. AWFULLY PRICEY." The plot thickens. 

Thoughts on if Opal got into ND? Ever forget about an interview, and it still went really well? Ever learn of big news that someone assumed you knew, via text?