RICHMOND, Ky. (LEX 18) — You can spend years preparing for this, but until you do it you won’t understand how hard it is.
“It pulls at the heartstrings. Not sure that I’m ready,” said Susan Hounshell, behind a pair of sunglasses that was hiding her tears.
Susan and her husband, Billy, drove down from Ohio to drop their son at Eastern Kentucky University on Wednesday, where more than 50 returning students were there to lend a hand with the move into the renovated Keene Hall.
“It looks nice. The whole time I’ve been here it was being renovated,” said sophomore Vinny Watkins.
Residence Hall Coordinator Daniel Lopez lived in this dorm long before its down-to-the-studs renovation.
“When I moved in here in 2017, the colors were different, you couldn’t control the temperature from in your room, the laundry machines were different,” he said, before rattling off the many other amenities the students are walking into.
Lopez and his staff will spend the rest of the day, and this week, helping the incoming freshman get acclimated to college life with various activities and social gatherings. The parents. who will leave once the unpacking is completed, will have to occupy their minds in some other way, while hoping they did enough over the previous 17-18 years.
“He’s a good kid, we don’t have to worry about him,” said Billy Hounshell of his freshman son. “Try to teach him right from wrong, and hope he takes that with him,” he added.
They’ll be back for graduation ceremonies before they have a chance to blink.
