Ah yes, family weekend. For freshman, this is the weekend where your parents come to your small dorm where you and another student are crammed together with empty ramen cups and plastic water bottles are overflowing in your garbage can. You scramble to clean up as best as you can and try to find a hiding spot for those bottles of wine or 12 pack of beer you managed to get an upperclassman to buy for you. Your family comes, they hang out with you and force you to attend all of the campus events that you have no interest in, they take you grocery shopping since you have no food at all, and they make their way back home on Sunday.
Being an upperclassman, however, and living off campus made my family weekend go a bit differently. I still scrambled to clean my house and make it look like I have my life a little bit together before my mom came to visit me. It was a great weekend filled with laughs and the familiar happiness that comes from being around my mother. There was one part of the weekend that was a bit difficult for me though. My boyfriend’s family came to visit for family weekend as well and his teenage cousins wanted to spend the night in a college town with us. While we couldn’t take them out on the town, we had a fun night of playing games and watching Friendsall night (which is what we actually do on the weekends as a senior in college). The next day, however, we found that it was very difficult to find something to do to entertain the 13 and 14 year olds. What do kids their age like to do these days? We must have sat in my living room for over an hour trying to figure out what to do since Charleston has a less than admirable list of things to do here. We finally decided that shopping in Champagne was the best we could offer them, and being teenage girls they were thrilled.
Later than evening, after we had taken them home and I was sitting on my couch trying to figure out what to write about for this blog, I thought about how hard it was to figure out what to do with the girls and how much I would have loved a list of fun activities that happen in Charleston. Being over 21 and having a car and a job does add a lot more to the list of things I can do of course. So, here I present a list of things you can do when you have family come to visit you in college.
Campus Tour
Once our families had arrived and settled in for a bit, my boyfriend and I had the great idea of showing our families around campus to give them a glimpse into our daily lives. So we packed them up in a car and drove them to our home away from home. We walked around our whole campus and told them stories about our time there and even some myths and legends that our campus holds. We took them to the bookstore so they could buy us some cool EIU gear (because we couldn’t afford anything in there if we tried) and it was a great time. They really enjoyed seeing the campus and we really enjoyed easing their worry about our school life.
Nature Walk
Living in this small town, we don’t have much of anything. The one thing we do have an abundance of are trails and parks that lead to some of the most beautiful sights that southern Illinois has to offer. If your family is up for physical activity, it is always a great idea to take them to a park, trail, or a lake of some sort. It’s a good way to spend some quality time with your family while enjoying the outdoors.
Bowling
Ah yes, the amazing game of bowling. The one game that brings out the worst in everyone. I don’t know about you, but I can get very competitive, and so can my family. It’s always fun to have a little family competition once in a while. It can also be a great way to relieve some school stress you might have. We are lucky enough to have a bowling alley on our campus so it is never far or too expensive.
Board Games
When I lived on campus last year, my roommates and I loved to sit around the table and play board games. We started a collection and we now have a pretty good selection of games to keep us busy when we don’t feel like leaving the house. It’s also a cheap way to start up some friendly competition without leaving the comfort of your own home. Some of the games we love are Risk, Cards Against Humanity, Jenga, and What Do You Meme.
Volunteer
This option is something that isn’t very common, but it could be a great way to give back to your community with your family. Some great places to volunteer at are places like animal shelters, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and even fire stations and police stations.
Hopefully this small list gave you some inspiration and some new ideas of things to do with the fam when they come and visit!
Magnolia skies 