{"id":1070,"date":"2013-08-27T19:16:12","date_gmt":"2013-08-27T19:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kandynolesstevens.com\/?p=1070"},"modified":"2013-08-27T19:16:12","modified_gmt":"2013-08-27T19:16:12","slug":"dear-yale-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/?p=1070","title":{"rendered":"Dear Yale University"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Yale University<\/p>\n

I was daydreaming about your prestigious school last night at dinner.\u00a0 Had I answered a question with better timing, my mental absence otherwise would have been barely perceptible.\u00a0 I was thinking about what it had been like dropping off my son to become a future Eli and Bulldog fan.\u00a0 In the middle of supper, my thoughts drifted to thinking wouldn\u2019t be great if we could all call him and say, \u201cWe made it home from New Haven.\u00a0 We\u2019re here, and it isn\u2019t the same without you.\u201d<\/p>\n

That last part is actually true.\u00a0 His absence from your campus, however, isn\u2019t because he was denied admission.\u00a0 The stark reality is much more cruel as Reed died five and half years ago.\u00a0 My daydreaming was fantastical grief thinking.\u00a0 Wishing that the school my sweet boy announced on a family trip in 6th<\/sup> grade was actually where he was, rather than the bitter reality.<\/p>\n

I remember it like it was yesterday.\u00a0 All those years ago, we didn\u2019t know that a sweet red-headed boy from the Minnesota prairie even knew what Yale University was.\u00a0 But he did!\u00a0 On a snowy winter drive home from the place where he is now buried, he proclaimed he would be attending Yale, as if it was a menu option he was choosing.\u00a0 When questioned, he knew all about it, even going so far as saying he would much rather attend Yale than Harvard.\u00a0 His dad and I simply shrugged, but secretly I know we both smiled in our hearts the rest of the drive.<\/p>\n

That year for Valentine\u2019s Day, we gave him a YALE hooded sweatshirt.\u00a0 Most of his clothes have been made into teddy bears or quilts, but none of us can seem to\u00a0alter that sweatshirt in any way.\u00a0 So it sits reverently in a drawer waiting to be worn by a boy who isn\u2019t coming home.<\/p>\n

\"yale\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The truth is admission for him would not have been hard.\u00a0 He was that kid! Intelligent, precocious, and a big time dreamer!\u00a0 He might have lacked organizational skills for material things, but his thoughts were always well beyond his years.<\/p>\n

As your new freshmen class arrives on campus, we are excited for the possibilities the future holds for them.\u00a0 So too are we happy for all of Reed\u2019s classmates and friends as we see all sorts of\u00a0pictures from moving day from them and their parents. Truly, we are excited and happy for them!\u00a0\u00a0We are just sad for us.\u00a0 A heart divided really struggles.<\/p>\n

Even though, I really wanted to purchase\u00a0 \u201cYale Mom\u201d fan gear. (Who wouldn\u2019t want to?)\u00a0\u00a0I won\u2019t be doing that in the coming days or weeks.\u00a0 Just know one mom really wishes she could.<\/p>\n

Thank you for being the place where future dreams are made and for being the place that my boy dreamed would be his school!\u00a0 May God bless all your new students abundantly!<\/p>\n

Go Bulldogs!<\/p>\n

Sincerely,<\/p>\n

A “Yale Mom” in my heart forever<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Yale University I was daydreaming about your prestigious school last night at dinner.\u00a0 Had I answered a question with better timing, my mental absence otherwise would have been barely perceptible.\u00a0 I was thinking about what it had been like dropping off my son to become a future Eli and Bulldog fan.\u00a0 In the middle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[733,734,735,736,274,412,737],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1070"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1070\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}