Nerve Endings Firing Away

This past weekend was Parents’ Weekend in Texas A&M. You would wonder, what the heck is that? Well, it is the weekend that is touted by the university as the time when parents drive down to College Station so that their kids can appreciate them by showing them around the university. Now, I honestly cannot understand this because I have always envisioned that kids would like their parents to get out of their hair once they leave home and the parents also would be relieved to finally have peace at home. But I have seen plenty of smiling faces (and jam-packed roads) in town this weekend to conclude that lots of people take this seriously. Bryan-College Station has around 3,000 odd hotel rooms; a large number for a town this small but reports trickle in that even this capacity falls woefully short on parents weekend and many are forced to shack up in nearby towns. When I was in undergrad college, the only time my parents saw my college was when it was absolutely necessary and that was effectively never.

Being the typical parents they were, they couldn’t understand why the hell I spent so much time at college when it was hardly couple of miles away from our home. But architecture school is such a bitch that they wouldn’t understand. Submissions, extensions, and NASA (the other one) were the only words they heard as excuses. Anyway, back to College Station. American parents look to their children’s education as some sort of investment; not in the typical Indian sense but something that they ought to get their money’s worth often in the short-term. Bumper stickers like, “My daughter and my money goes to Texas A&M” are quite common to see on parents’ cars. Many parents think about, let me see where the hell my money is going and they are satisfied only when they see it for themselves. Transcripts often do not help. The university, of course, puts on few official functions to reassure parents by allowing them in on few of the school’s traditions like the Midnight Yell (don’t ask) and other.

But I think, the ‘other’ purposes are often not mentioned. Parents drive or fly down from afar to check out their children’s accommodations and see for themselves who their friends are. They have so far only heard disjointed stories or the smart ones have seen more on MySpace. However, I am seeing the real benefits of the parents’ weekend right here in front of my eyes. I am at Sweet Eugenes, a quaint coffee shop. A girl walks in with her parents, looks around for an empty table, finds one and pulls up an extra chair. As they are getting their drinks, a guy walks in and he is greeted a little sedately by the girl and then introduced to her parents. The guy is all, nice to meet you, sir and hello, ma’am. Ah-ha! This guy is meeting his girlfriend’s parents for the first time. Soon, they are seated at a table chatting and conversation flows a little slowly at first and of course, in all politeness as each ‘party’ evaluates the other. Everyone is smiling so I am assuming things are going pretty well. Good for them!

Of course, life isn’t much different from other weekends for me. My parents live 8000 miles away and I don’t flying down for a weekend is on their agenda. But honestly, I wouldn’t know what to do with them in this town and plus, all my meet-the-parents incidents (both ways) have been done with.