September 2020
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The Way I See It By Cathey Meyer
Back to School Fourteen years ago, loyal, long-time readers might recall a column about my favorite niece, Wilhelmina. Actually, there have been several columns, but this one was set in the peace of our family church and this first-time aunt was attempting to keep her neice ‘quietly entertained’ during the Mass. I was successful at keeping her quiet, but the giggles of our fellow parishioners was not my fault. Dear Wilhelmina was taking inventory of my purse one item at a time. As we all learned, I did not sort through my purse often enough, and the four-year-old’s purge of my purse possessions was much more entertaining than the robot priest’s interpretation of the weekly gospel. Little did I realize at the time, this tiny bundle of curiosity would actually grow-up and fly the pew. The genetics of Wilhelmina’s educational interests is often a mystery to our family. Somewhere in her learning years, she took a liking to confusing cyber exploration, mind-blowing technical development, and a goal to one day travel in space. I am fairly sure her exploration of
my purse did not ignite any of this, but possibly the ancient operations of my cellphone way back then piqued her curiosity about moving forward in time instead of back to the future. She is my tech support for all things electronic. Part of my lack of tech development rests in her flying fingers—what would take me hours online with a nice lady from India, she could fix in minutes, OK seconds. My sweet Wilhelmina was part of the Pandemic Class of 2020. After a stellar public education career, years of cyber oriented competitions, travel throughout the U.S. to reign as a top competitor in cyber security and cyber design, she suddenly was old enough to vote and speaking to me in a language I was clueless to follow. Her choice of higher education destinations were all located on the FAR East Coast. She ultimately chose Columbia University to dip her toe into the next unknown. It seems like just yesterday she was rebooting my computer and explaining to me why Justin Bieber was so dreamy. Now Justin is married, and I am
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wondering how I will get all my pop culture updates and tech fixes with her so far away. Wilhelmina’s high school graduation was a YouTube event, as were all the high school graduations in the year of the pandemic. I scored on this one. The 8 AM pajama friendly event allowed for a cup of coffee with a spike of celebrated spirits to enjoy the computer screen walk by. We cheered not so much for her success but that we managed to figure out the YouTube and find her graduation all on our own. Maybe her work here is done. Thanks to Wilhelmina, I can Zoom with the best of them; GoToMeeting in a few clicks; Google HangOuts with some else’s email and Venmo with a weak internet signal. I will miss the easy hook-ups via her young fingers. Our family was heart broken at the loss of high school senior traditions she missed, but in her wisdom, she noted this was what a normal high tradition is in her time and every high school student had virtually the same experience. Yes, she missed prom, senior skip day and the final farewell to all her teachers, but as she pointed out, she really does not know exactly what she missed. Now we are playing the same song with her send off to college. There were big plans for a family venture to New York to settle her in and acclimate to the new surroundings. My sister could settle her in; I had shopping to do. Then the reality set in, maybe she would never see the campus of Columbia? Distance learning was the new buzz phrase in place of dorm roommate, build-
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ing locations and cool drinking spots. New plan for the college fish out of water: She is travelling to New York City, ALONE. Two suitcase limit, one laptop, no roommate and a 14-day quarantine when she arrives from the HOT spot of Texas. To observe the fearless young is to take me back to my first days at the University of Texas at Austin: I wanted my mommy! It was big and scary and my parents left me with a bag of cookies, a six pack of beer (It was legal back then.), a quarter for the pay phone and directions to the bus station for my trip back home at Thanksgiving. I was only 70 miles from home, but I might as well have been 1500. I got lucky as my high school chums found me crying in the corner of my room and gave me a taste of university life I needed to kick start my higher ed experience in gear. Wilhelmina was born the year of 9/11 and never knew the fun of airline travel in the days of wandering terminal freedom. She ended her high school career in the middle of a pandemic and will never know the joy of a long, dull graduation and cap launch. Her back to school will not be shared with weepy relatives, excited and scared at the same time to lose our little one. She is not the least apprehensive. The departure date cannot come soon enough as she is ready to fly the coop. My only request is to be the first on the ‘family plan’ when she sets off in that spaceship to Mars. Her post-graduate work will be a blast—in another orbit and that is a back to school I would hope to witness.
