Dear Yale University
I was daydreaming about your prestigious school last night at dinner. Had I answered a question with better timing, my mental absence otherwise would have been barely perceptible. I was thinking about what it had been like dropping off my son to become a future Eli and Bulldog fan. In the middle of supper, my thoughts drifted to thinking wouldn’t be great if we could all call him and say, “We made it home from New Haven. We’re here, and it isn’t the same without you.”
That last part is actually true. His absence from your campus, however, isn’t because he was denied admission. The stark reality is much more cruel as Reed died five and half years ago. My daydreaming was fantastical grief thinking. Wishing that the school my sweet boy announced on a family trip in 6th grade was actually where he was, rather than the bitter reality.
I remember it like it was yesterday. All those years ago, we didn’t know that a sweet red-headed boy from the Minnesota prairie even knew what Yale University was. But he did! 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. When questioned, he knew all about it, even going so far as saying he would much rather attend Yale than Harvard. His dad and I simply shrugged, but secretly I know we both smiled in our hearts the rest of the drive.
That year for Valentine’s Day, we gave him a YALE hooded sweatshirt. Most of his clothes have been made into teddy bears or quilts, but none of us can seem to alter that sweatshirt in any way. So it sits reverently in a drawer waiting to be worn by a boy who isn’t coming home.
The truth is admission for him would not have been hard. He was that kid! Intelligent, precocious, and a big time dreamer! He might have lacked organizational skills for material things, but his thoughts were always well beyond his years.
As your new freshmen class arrives on campus, we are excited for the possibilities the future holds for them. So too are we happy for all of Reed’s classmates and friends as we see all sorts of pictures from moving day from them and their parents. Truly, we are excited and happy for them! We are just sad for us. A heart divided really struggles.
Even though, I really wanted to purchase “Yale Mom” fan gear. (Who wouldn’t want to?) I won’t be doing that in the coming days or weeks. Just know one mom really wishes she could.
Thank you for being the place where future dreams are made and for being the place that my boy dreamed would be his school! May God bless all your new students abundantly!
Go Bulldogs!
Sincerely,
A “Yale Mom” in my heart forever