Dear Kid,

A few days ago we had the opportunity to wander Penn State. Here’s what I know:

  • It rains there.
  • There are a lot of buildings, some of which are newer than others.
  • There is a lot of construction (see “newer” above).
  • There is a lion statue.
  • The name “Nittany” comes from the mountain lions that used to roam near the school and to Mount Nittany a local landmark which we didn’t see.
  • But we did see the statue.
  • There is a lot of ice cream. Dad and Pi helped make sure there was slightly less by the time we left.
  • Really nice first floor of the business school building.
  • It is a big campus.
  • It seems bigger when you’re walking in the rain.

The Spirit of Penn State DearKidLoveMom.comWe wanted to see the Rec Center but it is not easy to get into that building. Dad finally found an unauthorized door for us to sneak in. We wandered around not finding the rec center and a very nice man said, “Are you looking for lacrosse?”

It was a reasonable questions since I was wearing the lacrosse jacket I inherited from Samara. I smiled, I’m that kind of a mom, and said, “No, the jacket was my niece’s. This is my soccer player.” I said this because I had deduced he was with the soccer organization since his t-shirt said “Soccer.”

Turns out, he’s one of the coaches with the women’s soccer program, and he kindly invited us in to his office to talk about Penn State Women’s Soccer. Crazy cool. Also it wasn’t raining in his office.

He did not spontaneously offer Pi a full scholarship, but that’s probably because he’s new to the school. I’m sure not having ever seen her play wasn’t even part of the equation.

Love, Mom