With schools closed for the rest of the spring, my daughter is moving from middle school into high school. It’s a scary time for her, so I’ve tried to easy that anguish by having her watch Boy Meets World on loop. I mean, it worked for me 20 years ago, so it should work for her, too, right?

Well, she must have binged it beyond season five, as now she’s getting ready for college. 

Ever since she was about 3, my daughter has wanted to be a zookeeper. There was never another job she has wanted over the past 10-plus years. Just a zookeeper.

So, now she is prepping for college, and wanting to go to UW-Madison, “to be a Badger like Aunt Valerie” and “it’s like, the second best college in the country for zookeeping.”

I’ll take her word for it.

Then the other night she sent me a bunch of Snapchat messages from her room asking about filing taxes and setting monthly finance plans for when she moves out after school. 

I told her taxes are complicated, and thus, I pay someone else to worry about all of that stuff for me.

Then we spent three hours online looking at apartments around Madison for her to live in after college, comparing amenities and perks, plus bus routes and distance to the Henry Vilas Zoo, her preferred employer of the future, again, since she was just 3-years-old.

Talking about college and looking at dorm room plans started bringing back my own memories and experiences. She was appalled at my more innocent endeavors in college, so I think I will save some of the better stories for later. I mean, I have years to go right? What year is it again? March, April and May have been the longest decade of my life.

— Adam Krebs is a reporter for the Monroe Times and can be reached at akrebs@themonroetimes.net.