Fun from a College Girl's Viewpoint

By L.A. Kohl
September 4, 2007
(published in the Sept. 12, 2007 edition of "the bullseye")

It just sort of happened as the child-rearing years went by – our children developed a knack for having and creating fun in very simple circumstances. The cute thing is this: the enjoyment of simple things continues even into the college years.

Our eldest is now in her second year of college. We talked on the phone recently, so I could find out what kind of things she found to do over her Labor Day weekend, since she chose not to come home. Here is her recounting of just one evening’s worth of “fun” with her friends…

It was the first night of the weekend - Friday night. One of her friends from Wichita loves baseball, and she wanted a bunch of them to go together down to Springfield to watch the Springfield Cardinals play against the Wichita...ummm…I have to show my baseball ignorance and admit that I don’t know the mascot of the Wichita team. 

Anyway, several were going, so she said, “I decided I could spend five bucks to go watch the game, even though I’m not into sports.”
“Besides,” she continued, “I have never been to a professional baseball game, so I thought, ‘why not?’”
(I chose not to inform her that she still has not actually been to a professional baseball game.)

She went on to tell me that the first half of the game was okay; kind of boring, but she was getting into it a little bit. Then, she said, the real fun began in the second half of the game.

I started imagining the game getting much more exciting and tense, fans standing, yelling, cheering, all that stuff…you know, typical sporting event kind of fun. I was mistaken.

“Kyle and Casey left for a few minutes,” she said, talking about a couple of her good friends, “then they came back to get me because they said they found this really incredible hill for rolling down.”

Thus, she continues to tell me how she spent the second half of the ballgame rolling down an amazing hillside with a couple of friends. That’s what made the second half of the game more entertaining?

“I just had one problem though,” she laughed, “I kept rolling into Kyle and Casey. I guess I roll downhill crooked – so what’s up with that???”

I have to admit, I didn’t have an answer to that question. I did kind of want to ask her a question, something along the lines of, “So what’s up with baseball having a first and second half?” But once again, I chose not to say anything. Besides, she was busy telling me that only one of them actually broke their cell phone in the midst of the rolling antics, and it wasn’t her. That was good news, since she has already ruined one in the washing machine.

“And then after the game and a great fireworks show, we all decided to go to Braum’s for ice cream,” she continued. “We only got lost three or four different times…it was great!”

“Then, when we finally found it, we all decided we’d go to the grocery store side, and just buy one big tub of ice cream and share it all together…so we sat in Braum’s, all of us trying to eat this hard as a rock tub of sherbet with little plastic spoons, knives and forks. We broke a TON of them, and it was just a blast – I don’t remember the last time I laughed so much!”

Rolling down hills, getting lost, and sharing a half gallon of ice cream with friends…that’s what makes life rich for her. And from my point of view, I can say it is quite a relief when I can remain so calm and collected while listening to my college daughter’s Friday night escapades.