Thank you
Dear Purdue,
Four years ago, we packed a boy and his stuff in a truck and moved him to West Lafayette, Indiana.
We were nervous and apprehensive about what his time in your care would be like, so far away from home.
Would he find friends? Would he thrive in his major? When would we see him?
(Would this awful feeling of missing him ever go away?)
Before we said our goodbyes, we all choked down lunch, prolonging the inevitable, and then we released him into your care.
Amidst the housing crisis caused by post-pandemic deferrals returning to the system, our boy wasn’t in a typical dorm situation. He lived in a townhouse with kids with whom he had nothing in common. It was an interesting freshman orientation week.
I remember those first few days, the phone calls and texts, the back-and-forth. He was missing our county fair and the tractor pulls; it felt so uncomfortable and foreign. Lonely.
And then, it came. A phone call. “Mom, I found my people.”
(Thank you, Ryan. Thank you, Farmhouse.)
We breathed a sigh of relief. It was going to be okay.
And it was more than okay. This past weekend, after almost four years, we packed up that boy’s life and brought him home.
Purdue, you came too.
The people placed in his life for those four years will be his friends forever.
As happy as I am to have my son back home, I was sad to be leaving your campus and all of these wonderful people, who became our extended family for four years.
I will miss my time in West Lafayette, walking the campus with Tyler—and Trixie, who always went with me. The Mother’s Day projects with our sons, chicken salad, and a windy group photo in front of the Farmhouse Fraternity. And most recently, an all-day marathon at Harry’s Chocolate Shop. What a time!
Tailgates at Pete the Bus, biscuits and gravy, and a shotinsky in the fall on game days.
Or watching the basketball team work its way up and down the March Madness bracket the last 4 years, so fun!
It’s bittersweet.
Purdue, you filled his dance card with opportunities. He interned every summer, trying everything, from cucumber planting and harvesting to drone flying and row crop farming. There were parts to each internship that he loved.
Thank you, Purdue. And thank you for the institution of families that we met through the entire experience, who became Tyler’s family when we couldn’t be there (Lieberman, Burbrink, Poland, and Plumer families), to name a few.
Great things are coming, Tiashoke! Made possible by all of his experiences as a Boilermaker.
His dad and I gave him wings, and he flew around the Midwest for four years. We are so grateful he is flying back to begin his life as a fifth-generation dairy farmer. To say we are proud and so very happy is an understatement.
As tears of joy welled on graduation day, and a tear slid down my cheek the next morning when we drove away from campus, my heart was filled with love and gratitude.
Here’s to Tyler! Here’s to all of the lifetime friends he made.
And here’s to his alma mater. Hail, hail, Purdue!
With love,
Kate
