Exonians Enjoy Family Weekend

While Parents Weekend carries the promise of an extra day off and time to relax or get off campus with family or friends, for some it also leads to SATs and extra academic work. While it carries the promise of good food, it also carries the promise of extra-long lines at Dhall. While for many Parents’ Weekend is a chance to catch up with parents or relatives, for some it is also a cause for added stress due to parents being present in classes.“It was weird at first having our parents there—normally it’s much more open, but when you are there, you feel like you have to prove something, or hide stuff. People were trying really hard in class, normally kids are more relaxed, but with their parents there, I thought my classmates were trying to make gigantic philosophical arguments that they wouldn’t have made otherwise to prove something to their parents,” lower Eliran Oz said. “It was nice having our parents there for a couple of days, but I feel like my classmates shouldn’t have made such a big deal out of it—it should be more relaxed.”Upper Sarah Lamie agreed. “It seemed like we were all trying way too hard to impress our or other people’s parents, to make it seem like our parents are getting what they paid for, and seeing what they expected to see.”“There are definite things that we can tweak or improve. It was absolutely ridiculous that they only had Elm open on Dhall, with a much larger crowd cramped into one building. Classes were overly stuffed, getting out of buildings was a mess and each parent was way too early or late—it was absolute insanity,” Lamie said.Many international students like upper Jessie Yeung had parents who were unable to come due to the weekend’s short duration. “My parents didn’t come because the entire trip takes 24 hours for my parents to come over, so it just doesn’t make sense just for 2 days,” Yeung said.Others felt that the date of parent’s weekend was inconvenient. “It’s not good how it always falls on weekends with standardized testing, because it takes away from time spent with parents,” upper Amy Azubuike said.However, many students had fun participating in a variety of activities, ranging from video games to college visits.Some chose to spend the weekend spending down time alone. “I had a very relaxing weekend on campus by myself. I put on my face mask sat on the couch and played grotesque amounts of video games,” upper Ben Hogoboom said.Others students utilized parents weekend to spend time with family. “My mom and grandmother came on Friday, and they told me they really enjoyed coming to my classes. It was really great to see them. Over the weekend I went home and just relaxed for a few days. I would say that the highlight of my weekend was going to Denny’s with some of my friends late at night and seeing who could eat the most pancakes,” upper Brooks Saltonstall said.“I had to stay on campus for my cross country meet, but we went to Ogunquit, Maine. It was one of the few places that still had an open hotel room when we booked it. I saw Jaws in an old theater with no heating and froze my butt off,” lower Soren Blomquist Eggerling said.“We went to the Met Museum [Metropolitan Museum of Art] in New York City and saw a gallery on 20th century photography. Then we went out to Katz’s deli and ate matzo ball soup, and we met up with my relative from Australia,” upper Mirella Gruesser-Smith said.Senior Shannon Diesch, like many other seniors, visited colleges. “My parents couldn’t come from Michigan because it’s too far away, but it was awesome,” she said. “I got to spend two nights in one of the dorms at MIT, and see what weekend life was like there. On Monday I went to a music festival, and we hung out with a lot of people in the dorm.”Trips to Boston or Portsmouth were common among both international and domestic students.“The school organizes lots of trips into Boston, etc. and if there’s somewhere you wanted to go that isn’t offered, you can always just go there yourself,” upper Jessie Yeung said.