As many of you know, my oldest child is a senior in high school.

Until right about now, the whole "going off to college" thing has been largely imaginary, even though she's gotten 2 acceptances (with money, even!).

It still seems like kind of a game. A game that costs around $50 for every entry, but a game nonetheless.

We've been on a couple of college visits, one to a school I'm somewhat familiar with, and the other to a school from where I graduated, so those visits still seemed a little pretend.

But, last week we went on the first visits that seemed real.

Busy Girl and I got in the car Wednesday night and drove the 350 miles to West Lafayette, IN to visit Purdue University.

We were both excited to see it since it's among her first choices, but it still didn't seem real until I watched her go in to her appointment with the business school.

I know people send kids to college all the time, but this is starting to get serious, yo.

She had that appointment, we walked around, shopped at the bookstore and ate in one of the dining services areas like real students.

Then we had a campus tour that was nice because we had a tour guide all to ourselves and got to ask lots of questions.

Then, we drove down to Bloomington and did much the same thing at Indiana University.

Holy Honkers, that place is massive.

I discovered I could be a professional college visitor, I had a blast.

Actually, Purdue was my first real college visit.

I was essentially told where I was going to college (family legacy) and I applied and went without visiting other places, so this was kind of new to me.

One thing that was a little unexpected for me was my reaction to imagining my child at a school with the same colors as mine with people passionately singing a different alma mater.

Weird, I know, but it just kind of struck me.

Anyway, it was all very informative once I caught onto the fact that when they said "parents" they were talking to me.

I work on a college campus, so I suppose I officially looked like the slack-jawed people I often see touring with their high school seniors.

Being the parent on a college visit is a sure fire way to make you feel old.

The students are her peers, and I'm just the person they have to condescendingly inform about "safety".

Also, I realized I was expending a lot of mental effort on wondering if there's a grocery and a drugstore nearby. When did I become that person?

Anyway, who knows how all this will turn out?

We're still waiting on some letters, and I have no idea what we'll be able to afford, especially because we'll have another kid coming along to college right behind her.

Meanwhile, I just continue referring to the whole thing as "school camp" and enjoy all the pretty brochures that come in the mail.