A small decision...
When I was a senior in high school
and making a choice about what colleges to apply to and which college to
attend if I were to be accepted at more than one college, I chose to
apply to two different WI universities.
I had
an older brother who was a student at the University of Wisconsin in
Madison, WI and he would be a senior when I started as a freshman if I
got accepted and went there. We were great friends as well as siblings
and he was having a wonderful experience at UW-Madison so I thought that
would be a terrific place for me also.
My
high school career had included a number of opportunities for me to go
to the campus of the La Crosse State College only thirty miles from our
farm home. La Crosse was the place where District Band and Chorale
ensemble as well as Forensic competitions were held. I played a
baritone saxophone for three years, a tenor sax for one, sang in the
choir and a vocal trio, participated in 4-minute Speech for three years
and Interpretive Reading of Prose for one year during my high school
years. The District competitions for those events were held on the
campus of the La Crosse State College so I had learned my way around
that campus and part of the town where it was located. I had been born
in La Crosse, WI and had cousins who lived there so had been in that
city many times during my childhood. La Crosse had a strong pull on
my heart so I was confident that it would be a good place for me to
start college if I got accepted there.
In my
family, there was always the consideration of cost for all that we did.
My brother had gotten a very significant scholarship which provided
most of what he needed to attend UW-Madison for four years. I did not
have a significant scholarship offer but I was my class Salutatorian and
that qualified me to apply for housing at UW-Madison for girls who were
either the Valedictorian or the Salutatorian of their Wisconsin high
school class. This housing dormitory had a reduced rate for those who
got accepted to live there. The girls who were the residents provided
some of the weekly work that needed to be done in their rooms and common
areas such as halls and bathrooms plus in the kitchen and dining area.
I
applied at both UW-Madison and UW-La Crosse. I also applied for the
reduced rate dormitory at UW-Madison. My personal first choice was for
acceptance at UW-Madison along with acceptance for the scholarship dorm
there. If I did not get accepted for the dorm, I knew I would not go to
the Madison campus but would instead go to school in La Crosse which
was not as expensive as the main University in Madison.
At
some point in the spring before I finished C-FC High School, I received
a letter from UW-Madison letting me know that I had not been selected
for a room in the scholarship dorm. The letter did inform me that I
qualified to be put on a wait-list in the event a future opening would
become available if I returned a card or letter stating that I wished to
be put on such a wait-list.
I imagine that I
was momentarily disappointed but because I knew that La Crosse was a
desirable choice and that there was very likely no way that a future
opening would become available, I made a "small" decision not to return
the mail asking to be put on a wait-list. I began to plan to be a
student at UW-LaCrosse in the fall of 1963.
My
senior year wrap-up continued as expected until I got off the school bus
at home one day. As I walked into our home, Mom cheerily welcomed her
returning four daughters and handed me an envelope that had come in the
mail that day. I saw that it had the return address of UW-Madison. I
wondered what they could possibly be sending me so I hurriedly opened
the letter. I began to read the message in shock and disbelief! The
letter was informing me of my residential placement at Susan Davis House
for the school year of 1963-1964. I quizzically looked at Mom and
asked, "How can this be? I didn't return their request to be put on a
wait-list?" That is when I learned about a "small" decision my mother
had made a week or so before receiving this letter. She admitted that
though I didn't choose to return the letter and get put on a wait-list,
she had done it for me. How thrilled I was at that point to have the
Mother I had who believed in her daughter and trusted God with the final
outcome of where that girl would start college that fall. By making
her own "small" decision God was able to overrule my "small" decision.
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