Hello Sunshine

Today, my littlest sister, Jane, graduates from high school. Actually, she graduated in December, but the ceremony in which she walks across the stage is tonight. I think it’ll be longer than my college graduation, but shorter than my high school graduation…at least I hope. Mine was a 2 and a half hour horrorshow.

In September, Jane is moving to China to go to college. The decision happened because Oberlin was too edgy for her, so she decided to scale it back a little bit…and move to the other side of the world. She does have some idea of what she’s getting into. She went to school in Xi’an (pronounce: She-on) for two months this spring, and is going back to the university there.

But I don’t think she knows exactly what she’s missing. I remember sitting around (okay, telemarketing) the summer before college, thinking about what college would be like, and I came up with more things like “I will not have a curfew!” and “I will make new friends.” than like “I’ll be exposed to sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll!” and “I’ll have to deal with my own social and emotional problems within a small community”.

Maybe she’ll learn the same lessons in a different way than I did, or maybe she’ll learn completely different lessons, but either way, I think I won’t be able to relate to her experiences the same way that I can relate to the experiences of our middle sister, Anne. It’ll be interesting to hear about how everything works, but I’m a little bit sad that I won’t be able to listen and give her advice about the kinds of things that I’ve been able to help Anne with–from roommate and social problems to academic schedules and deeper what-am-I-doing dilemmas…these things simply won’t exist for Jane.

Still…she gets to live in the same city as the Terra Cotta Soldiers, and learn Chinese in China for four years. Pretty cool.