Happy Valentine’s Day

In this Issue:

• Reminder: Founders Day livestream tomorrow at 4 p.m.
• Valentine’s Day thoughts
• Ways to show love to your college student

Happy Valentine’s Day to all in the Daily Deacdom! May you feel plenty of love from your student, your family and friends, and the important people in your lives. From all of us at Wake Forest, we send you love!

Reminder: Founders Day livestream tomorrow at 4 p.m.

For those families who would like to join in on University events, our Founders Day is tomorrow (Thursday, Feb. 15) at 4 p.m. and you can livestream it. Two very deserving Wake Foresters will be awarded the Medallion of Merit: retired women’s golf coach Dianne Dailey and Professor Emerita of English Claudia Kairoff. Founders Day also will feature music, a celebration of Wake Forest milestones, reflections from Vice President for Campus Life Shea Kidd Brown on the distinctive values that inspired our founding and continue to shape our vision for the future, and remarks from President Susan R. Wente.

Founders Day also features the Senior Oration, which is written and read by a senior, and those are always remarkable: sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, sometimes deeply personal, but always moving. I love the Senior Oration because you really get to see inside the heart and mind of one of our exceptional seniors.

Hope your Deacs – particularly our seniors, for whom this will be their last chance to experience it! – will come to Founders Day at 4 p.m. in Wait Chapel tomorrow, and then to Founders Fest, a celebration for students, at 5:30 p.m. in the Benson Center.

Valentine’s Day thoughts

Valentine’s Day can be a really tricky time in college. Students might be in a relationship, or they might be in a “situationship” – a kind of ambiguous place where they don’t want to push too hard to define the relationship and scare their partner off. Or they might be happily – or unhappily – single.

My sense, having been at this rodeo for a while, is that some of our students very much hope to find a committed relationship while in college, but perhaps are afraid to admit that because there is some pressure to remain more casual. I suspect some of our students are approaching Valentine’s Day with joy – if there is a significant other in their lives – or perhaps with wistfulness or a sense of dread if they are single.

I hope it goes without saying that every day is a good day for you to connect with your student and tell them you love them unconditionally – but perhaps especially on Valentine’s Day.  Just know there may be some ambivalence about the day depending on their love life status.

Ways to show love to your college student

My late father was very generous with hugs and “I love you”s, but his true love language was gestures: he would fill up my gas tank, or slide me an unexpected $20, and those sorts of things. I’ve always liked this graphic because it reminds me of him.

So how can you – from a distance – show love to your college student? Here are some ideas:

• Send them some pictures of their beloved pets
• Send them a handwritten letter, or buy a card at the store and send it to them. Say things that they long to hear: that you love them (no matter what), that you believe in them, that you are proud of them, etc.
• Bake them a batch of their favorite treat (cookies, etc.) from home and send to them.
• Buy them an e-giftcard to a local restaurant/coffee shop.
• Send (via letter, Venmo, Zelle) an unexpected bit of cash.
• Text them an uplifting message (like a “you can do it!” before a test), or even just a funny meme you saw
• Take a selfie of you holding up a sign that says “Love you!” or “Miss you!”