What's going on, Albuquerque?

Lobo Lineage

The first time I saw Albuquerque was during winter break of my senior year of college. My 3 year old son and I drove east from California in an aging pickup truck to check out the University of New Mexico and Albuquerque as a possible place to spend a few years while I attended graduate school.

The two of us had been to New Mexico numerous times, but always stayed in the northwestern corner of the state - visiting sites on the Navajo Nation where my son’s paternal grandparents, a hydrologist and a medical mycologist, had worked and lived many years ago.

We spent a scant 24 hours driving around Albuquerque and UNM in 1992 – the campus was quiet during the break, but I liked the architecture; the street names in Spanish reminded me of home and the bare contours of the mesas and mountains appealed to our eyes. People were kind to us, chatting with my son and me as we explored the Duke City and tried sopapillas with honey for the first time.

I became a UNM graduate student, then a research assistant and a teaching assistant, an instructor, and finally an alumnus. Some point later I started working for the university as a consultant. I’ve worn many hats at UNM, but this past week I donned a new one.

I’m now a UNM parent.

Last week I helped haul clothes and books and electronic gear into a UNM college dormitory, attended an orientation for families of freshmen, and ~~fainted~~ started to recover from sticker shock at the cost of textbooks at the campus bookstore.

I also spent a fair amount of lumpy-throated time sitting and reflecting in my son’s empty and clean-ish bedroom, along with our family pets, who have claimed this newly quiet space as their den.

Lobo parent orientation was designed to allay our fears, to guide us through red tape, to give us a list of names to contact and faces to associate with the names, and to orient us to our new role. There was even a nifty little session titled “Redefining your Relationship”, where we learned, among other things, not to make surprise visits to the dorms.

Even though I have been associated with UNM for more than a decade, I learned a few things.

1. The Lobo Cheer: Everyone’s a Lobo – WOOF! WOOF! WOOF! (They don’t teach this to graduate students – or maybe I was in the library when they did).

2. That intense helicopter parents are called BlackHawk parents. (As a faculty member at another university, I have encountered this scary species from time to time. Each encounter leaves me praising the powers-that-be who implemented FERPA).

3. That the ADA compliant visual and audible fire alarms work quite well! We were rushed out of three different buildings, SUB, Bookstore and La Posada, in a span of less than 3 hours last Friday.

4. That UNM has a parent-relations office.

5. That, contrary to my progeny’s assessment, I am NOT the most technologically backwards parent in Albuquerque. Many parents are unfamiliar with Twitter, Blackboard/WebCT, Kindle, and clickers. (My apparent generational techno-savvy fails to impress my offspring, who never pass up an opportunity to mock my technological ineptitude, a prerogative of youth).

Today is the first day of school at UNM.

While I could have given my son the spiel I give all to each of my college students on the first day of class, I figure that he's had a lifetime to absorb Mom's rantings about the importance of education and pursuing your passion(s).

Instead, I have given my son the following advice:

1. Green chile stew is served during Welcome Back Days – check out the schedule.

2. Work hard, play hard.

3. Get involved with an organization or start your own.

4. Each semester, take at least one course that makes you stretch outside of your comfort zone. (This might be a good place to start).

5. Don’t wash your new cherry and silver Lobo shirt in the same laundry load as your tighty whiteys.

To all members of the UNM entering class of 2012 - have a great freshman year!
(And especially to ARB and his best friend MAA...)

Go Lobos!

Tags: Albuquerque, Lobos, UNM, parenting

0 members like this

Comment by mombat on August 25, 2008 at 9:19am: Congratulations! I hope he has great first week. And you enjoy your first week back to school too.

Comment by La Fanciulla del West on August 25, 2008 at 9:47am: It's so hard to let them go, but you know you have to. Wishing your son a successful trek into the land of higher education.

Comment by Adelita on August 25, 2008 at 1:12pm: Wow BB! A child in her first year in high school and now one in his first year in college. I'm keeping these posts bookmarked. I'll be starting the journey with my daughter next year. And I love that you suggest a philosophy class for your son. There's something about a kid following in their parents footsteps!

And yes, "Everyone's a Lobo! Woof! Woof! Woof!"

Comment by Doc Mara on August 25, 2008 at 3:55pm: Fantastic post. I remember walking those halls and sidewalks well.

The red sauce is pretty good in the Union. Or at least it USED to be...

Comment by Ron Da Bomb on August 25, 2008 at 8:39pm: My first year was a thousand miles from home, in Missouri. And I mixed my colors with whites once. Wore pink "shortes" [sp] for a whole term.

Like most of us, she will look back on her days at university as some of the best days of her life. The best days.

Comment by La Fanciulla del West on August 25, 2008 at 9:03pm: I love your picture, Ron! Maybe I can dig up an old one of myself. I just gotta figure out where they are.

My first year of school was at Oregon State University.

Comment by Ron Da Bomb on August 26, 2008 at 9:46pm: Hey LFdW (I'm tired of misspelling your screenname, so that's what I will call you from now on) . . . Ah, the PAC-10 and the Beavers. Hard to find a more beautiful place than Corvallis. Did you ever get a chance to visit Crater Lake? One of the few places on this continent that don't disappoint. And DO post an old snapshot of yourself!! The one above makes me miss my hair. And those Levi 501 Jeans. 28-32 in size. I had a 26-inch waist once. Shirt from Miller's Outpost, pastel in color, short-sleeves rolled up just-so. Van's on my feet and (for the geek in me) a calculator-watch on my wrist. Since this was a casual pic, no skinny knit-tie. I was totally a Miller's Outpost bitch in those days.

Comment by La Fanciulla del West on August 26, 2008 at 11:47pm: Hey Ron--I couldn't sleep and I thought I'd come see if anything new was on here. My brother is an OSU alumnus and lives in Portland. Usually I visit him in the fall and we make the trek to Beaver Nation for a football game. Last time I went I drove down from Seattle since I was inspecting some labs there. The OSU campus is mostly how I remember it. And Crater Lake? Oh boy, do I have a Crater Lake story to tell.

I found an old pic of me, but it's not as squeaky clean as yours. It shows a group of us in one of the guys' rooms on the first floor, partying. I'll still try to post it. I was pretty flamboyant in my younger years; I've settled down in the past ten years or so. Okay, maybe it's more like the past 5 years... :)

Comment by Dr Dan on August 27, 2008 at 11:47am: The class I took out of confort zone was a film class which led to tow other classes which were informative, fun, and somewhat challanging in classroom discussion, but people's eyes roll when I tell them.
History of film
History of Film Comedy I
History of Film Comedy II
really, they were challenging, tests were easy but the class discussion was fun

Comment by Barelas Babe on August 27, 2008 at 2:13pm: I took an opera appreciation class because all students were required to take a music class, even those who had hearing loss. It ended up changing my life (and of course I wrote a blog about it....)