Garrett, Son of Johnna, Brother of Becca

This weekend was Family Weekend at Wheaton College. Since Louie and Hannah had a busy weekend and Rebecca had never been to visit, she and I drove the 9 hours north to see Garrett. Becca has been missing her big brother something fierce and had her bags in hand when I came home early from work Thursday to get her.

The drive isn't hard- but it's boring. Somewhere outside Cincinnati (I think) we saw a truck in front of us that was a triple-decker animal truck... full of baby pigs! As we passed, Becca snapped a picture. It was hilarious looking to see hundreds of tiny pink snouts and tails sticking out of a huge truck.

Even though we got in late, we stopped by Garrett’s dorm just to grab a hug before heading to our hotel. The next day was Friday and Garrett had an 8am class, so we met him afterward for breakfast in Wheaton’s ‘famous’ cafeteria to breakfast so we could start catching up. I was surprised to see that he’s lost weight- maybe 10 or 15 pounds. When I asked him about it he just shrugged and said he’s busy and walks everywhere and the cafeteria food has a lot of good, healthy choices he likes.

Then we headed out to attend chapel with him. All students attend chapel Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 10:30. Sometimes the chapel is done by the school chaplain, a concert or a guest speaker. That day it was the chaplain. (Guest speaker next week is Richard Foster who wrote “Celebration of Discipline” among other classic Christian books) Students have assigned seats, so we sat in the balcony.

After he had Biology and Chemistry class, we met up with him to check out his dorm. Becca loved it. She checked out his desk…

His bed…

His mini-fridge…

And snuck in a few more hugs. Then she left notes in sneaky places around his room for him to find later… so sweet.

Then, we went to the annual Wheaton Talent Show- a sell out with 2500 in attendance. We saw everything from a girl who whistled a song so well I can’t even explain, to a one man band who sang and played 5 instruments he wore, to a comedian, to a super talented guitarist. In between acts, the emcees were great and introduced the new Wheaton mascot, a mastodon named “Tor”. Fun fact: He’s the largest mascot in NCAA history… but also has to be the gentlest. He looks like Mr. Snuffalupogus!

Saturday, we spent the entire day with Garrett, just hanging out- which is exactly what we wanted. In the morning, we stopped in the Wade Center. It’s a museum at Wheaton College that came about because a Wheaton English professor and CS Lewis wrote regularly and in his will, Lewis left some of his things to the school. Then a businessman funded the museum.

Becca touched CS Lewis’ desk for writing inspiration.

Garrett loves that they also have J.R.R. Tolkein’s desk where he wrote all of the Lord of the Rings books.

They even have the actual wardrobe that belonged to CS Lewis that his brother says inspired his book, “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”. Becca wondered what would happen if she looked aaalllll the way in the back!

We looked all around the cute little town of Wheaton. It was trick-or-treat in the downtown businesses, so the sidewalks were teeming with toddlers in costume. We got Garrett a haircut (yep, he needed it), made the all-important “Target run” and headed over to Wheaton Bowl. He’d been wanted to check it out but it was too far to walk from campus… and a long bike ride. None of us bowled our best, even though Garrett put his game face on..

All I’ll say is, it was no Strike Zone. The shoes were… rough. When Garrett took his off, the inside of the shoe was flaking off onto his socks. (Eeewww.) I’ll not elaborate any more, but we still had a good time.

Like my cool shoes?

They look all sweet but there's a competitive spirit lurking beneath that 12 year old grin.

We had to introduce Becca to Chicago style pizza, so we took her to Ginos East, a fairly famous eatery. Since it takes a while to make a Chicago deep-dish pizza, we had time to kill… before long, I thought they were in elementary school again. Becca grabbed crayons and started coloring on the back of the placemat while Garrett leaned over and said, “Hey mom, can I have a few quarters?” I was seriously having flashbacks- if Hannah was there, it would have been perfect!

Becca was about to blow a gasket when I took her picture coloring… until I told her she could take my picture coloring… ok, it’s a little close, don’t you think?

Yum!

We hung out the rest of the night watching a movie at our hotel and talking. The next morning, we went to Egg’Clectic, a fun breakfast place downtown that’s becoming our tradition. They have a ton of fun and creative breakfast foods and the service is fast. That way, we could get on the road. It was early and we were really in need of some coffee.

We hated saying good-bye. It’s never feels right to leave your child and drive away- far away. I felt better to see that he’s doing ok. Although its difficult, his grades are good. He’s adjusting to the climate- he’s drinking a lot of hot tea, he bought a humidifier (that looks like a penguin) and he doesn't go anywhere without Chapstick. He has plenty of friends- it made Becca laugh that everywhere we went- cafeteria, chapel, talent show, bookstore, even Target- people would say, “Hey, Garrett!”.

My favorite song right now on my iPod is “Remind Me Who I Am” by Jason Gray. It says, “Tell me, once again Who I am to you, Who I am to you Tell me, lest I forget”. The lyrics speak about a person who says that when they don’t like what they see in the mirror or loose their way in life, they want to be reminded of who they ‘really’ are.

When we arrived on campus, Becca and I received a packet of info about Wheaton and name tags. This was mine:

I love it. Becca’s read, “Sister of Garrett”- she liked it a lot. I’m glad we drove up this weekend. (Sigh- even though it was 18 hours of driving- not fun) I think it’s important that Garrett not forget who he is. Yep, he’s a college freshman, and a biology major, and a member of the Wheaton Glee Club, etc. But… he’s still the son of Johnna Gaunch, brother of Becca Gaunch, brother of Hannah Gaunch and son of Louie Gaunch. The other ‘status’ will change, but these won’t… so I hope our visits- weekends and longer visits- will remind him of who he is.

A member of this family, forever.