Leaving Home, Going Away to College

Instead of reading syllabi and meeting teachers this week like Gwinnett County public school students, recent high school graduates Brian Reid and Peter Nelson are choosing items for their dorm rooms and meeting roommates on Facebook.

Reid, who graduated from in May, is headed to Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Ga., and is considering majoring in business.

“I feel pretty excited,” he said. It’s a whole new experience for me. I’m really looking forward to the freedom and all the stuff I’ll be able to do in college.”

Reid said he chose Kennesaw, the third largest public university in Georgia, because of the campus, array of degree programs, people and the dorms. Also, instead of adjusting to the usual extra-long twin bed normal to most dorm rooms, each dorm room has a full bed.

“I have yet to find another college that has a dorm this amazing – four bedrooms, four bathrooms, a full kitchen including a washer and dryer," Reid said.

He’s already found two of his roommates using Facebook and is looking for the third.

“It’s going to be different and will take some getting used to,” he said of his impending college experience. “Of course, I’ll come back home.”

Mom Sue Reid is “proud and excited for him, but sad to have him moving out of the house.”

Still, she likes the idea that Kennesaw is within an hour's drive away, in Cobb County. Coming home for the holidays and weekends won't be a long, difficult journey.

Another Brookwood High School graduate, Peter Nelson, won’t find it so easy to come home. He’s headed to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., where he plans to major in biomedical engineering.

He chose Johns Hopkins because “it is the best school for what I want to go into.” He considered Georgia Institute of Technology, as well. But, Johns Hopkins University is “only a little bigger than Brookwood,” Nelson said, with about 120 students in his major.

Nelson credits his high school biotechnology teacher, for introducing him to the science. Now, he is very interested in working in genetics and manipulating DNA.

“I feel surprisingly prepared going into a very heavy science curriculum,” he said. “I’m less freaked out about it because of how Brookwood prepared me with AP classes."

“We’ll see what I say later," he added, "but for now, it’s all good.”

Nelson plans to live on campus, and he has already met his roommate on Facebook. He says he'll come home for the normal college breaks at Thanksgiving and Christmas. However, Nelson is happy that he has extended family in New Jersey – a bus ride of just a few hours away.

“If I’m homesick, I’ll make (my parents) fly me home," Nelson added.

Becky Nelson, Peter’s mom, will have an empty nest when her son leaves. In addition to her youngest son being at John's Hopkins, she has a son who is a junior at Rice University in Houston, Texas, and a daughter in graduate school at Harvard University in Boston, Mass.

Going off to college is an important step in her children's growth, Becky Nelson believes. However, she added with a laugh, the house will be quiet and stay clean.

“I feel that my job as a parent has been getting my kids ready to be adults,” she said. “What’s funny is my husband is a contractor and I’m a nurse. People are always saying – how did you get such smart kids?

“We’ve been very blessed.”