Old Friends with Smart Kids

I love living in Durham for so many reasons.  People who are from here are nice to new people that move here, the restaurants are mostly chef/owner run so they care about their customer’s and products, differences of all kinds are embraced and celebrated and people are just plain ole’ friendly.

Although I have nothing to do with it, Durham also has this little thing called Duke University, which draws the best and the brightest to Durham.  For me that means more than really exciting basketball and good doctors, but it is a major draw for my old friends with college bound children to come and visit while they are looking at schools.  Some also are looking at that other great school in the town next door, UNC.  Wherever they may be looking in North Carolina, I love the fact that they come and stay with us.

Yesterday my college friend Jamie Karp Stone came all the way from Santa Fe with her husband Mark, daughter Meggie and Chinese exchange student Jolene for breakfast before going to look at Duke.  I have not seen Jamie in twenty-one years so I am thankful that she has a smart daughter and I have a smart University near by which created the opportunity for us to catch up.

This year I have had a number of college looking visitors and we are open to future visitors.  It is so fun to meet the children of people I got to know when we were just about their children’s age.  I think back to how smart and grown-up we thought we were as seniors in high school.  But of course we weren’t.  Just don’t tell kids that because they might never leave home if they knew all that they don’t know.

So if you have a child getting ready to jump out of the nest come and visit us and look at the school near by.  They don’t have to be Duke smart, they just have to be your kid to be welcome at our house.