Cousin Emily is graduating this year. Actually, she already graduated. We are just celebrating her graduation very close to when her parents are shoving her out the door and off to college. Why? It has been a crazy summer. Key relatives have been out of town, key relatives have been very sick. Now everyone is better and is in town. Good for us. This way, she also won’t spend her money over the summer and will have a big cornucopia of possibilities for her dorm room and college life.
Is she CampusReady yet? Perhaps. Perhaps not.
I asked her what she needed, and she said gift certificates to furnish her dorm room. I joked with her that I am going to poll people that went to that college, and I am going to find the greasiest, nastiest restaurant there. Then, I am going to buy a special gift certificate to it. It won’t be a mealy $5 coupon. Nope, I will have everyone who is already giving her a gift and ask them to pitch in $1-5 each, and then I will give the money to a cousin who lives out that way. He will buy a gift certificate so big that she won’t be able to NOT use it. She will feel bad if she doesn’t. It won’t be one of those charming “Greasy Spoons” that serve nostalgic American Diner food. It won’t be something that violates health codes. It just needs to be something kind of strange. There is a dish that was called Campus Scrapple. It is like Philadelphia Scrapple, except instead of whatever is left over from pork and eggs and whatnot, it is probably the last sliver of a hostess snack, some ramen noodles, and a pixie stick.
Of course, I am not going to really do that to her. However, if you live in the Ann Arbor, Michigan, area, or you have ties there, you are welcome to write me. Leave a comment if you can name a place. I would love to know!
At any rate, a better option is obviously a gift certificate. Sears has a large selection of items that are appropriate. They even have a CampusReady on Facebook where you can design your own dorm room. There is a roommate matcher to see if you are compatible with other people. The best part is that you can make yourself a little wishlist of things that you want people to buy for you. Kind of like a bridal registry without getting married, or a baby registry without having a baby.
In addition, Sears and UPromise are giving away a $25,000 scholarship. You can win by entering at sears.com/campusready. In fact, you can enter every single day. That’s a lot of chances. Of course, then other people get a lot of chances too. It all evens out in the end. If someone has 30 zillion chances and so do you, it is like both having one chance. Sort of.
