Calling all parents of college students …

When I went to college, I packed up my zippy blue Neon with purple decor for my dorm room. My mom and I drove 1,000 miles to Waco, Texas, and I watched Saved By the Bell in the hotel room the morning of move-in, about to embark on the biggest transition of my life. My mom cried when we pulled up to the dorm and she saw the balloons marking Move-in Day. I rolled my eyes, discreetly batting away my own tears.

Before we left our house, my mom used a black Sharpie to identify all of my items — from my laptop to my underwear — with my last name. For a girl just trying to blend in, a huge hand-written label doesn’t help.

Also, it doesn’t help if you call up your two “potluck” (aka unknown) roommates during the summer and ask them their thoughts on our room rules, like when we should go to sleep every night. In my defense, someone advised me that it was best to lay out the ground rules early on, so there wasn’t conflict later. I wish someone else had told me that I could wait until at least the first week of school to clinch my dorky status.

Nevertheless, advice from those with experience and camaraderie with those in the same boat is so comforting in the transition to college. That’s why I’m excited to be blogging for my newest client, University Parent. Check out the latest blog post here.

What do you think parents need to know? Appropriate Sharpie etiquette, perhaps?