It was going to be a quiet drive home for Terry Besaw Thursday morning.
A truck driver based out of Green Bay, Wis., Besaw was at Minnesota State University Thursday morning helping his son, Parker, move into his new home at Preska Residence Community. The two were among hundreds in a structured, first wave of a two-day move-in at campus residence communities.
And the two faced distinctly different areas of “new.” For Parker, it would be a new home and the beginning of college for a student who loves hockey and plans to fly planes. For Terry, he’d be driving six hours to a home that from here on out would have a new, if not quieter, feel.
“We’ll be empty nesters for the first time in 18 years,” Besaw said. “He’s our only child, so this is it for us. I don’t know what we’re going to do with all our free time….we’re going to have to find new hobbies. With him being gone now, it’s going to be very quiet around the house.”
Tim and Tiffany Mlsna, on the other hand, were two of three triplets away from being empty nesters. In their black Denali, they delivered son Isaiah and daughter Jordan to their respective new homes in McElroy and Crawford.
“It’s pretty hectic the past couple of weeks, trying to get three kids to drop off at school,” said Tim, “but now that it’s happening, they’re pretty excited.” While it took about four trips from vehicle to room to help Jordan get settled, Isaiah had members of the Maverick wrestling team to help him.
“Isaiah had an advantage because all the wrestlers met him here and whoosh—he was done in no time,” Tim said.
The overall scene of move-in day was noticeably different than the massive exercise in bottleneck traffic in hallways, elevators and entryways. This, said Torrin Akey, was the result of families taking part in a structured move-in, with all assigned spots and times in two-hour increments.
Akey, Associate Director of Residential Life, spent much Thursday standing in the middle of Ellis Avenue asking drivers one form or another of the old Diana Ross song “Do you know where you’re going to?” Most did, and the orderly transfer of contents from cars to rooms went smooth. About 800 were signed in to move in Thursday and 600 on Friday, Akey said.
“It’s quiet,” he said. “People are just doing their own thing.”
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