Mystie suggested that I blog about the way I ended up at U of I. That sounds like a good idea to me, since that’s a story I generally enjoy telling! It goes like this.\par
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Long ago Matt’s mom went to U of I. Or she just liked the school but didn’t go there, I’m not entirely sure. Either way, she thought it was a good school and it was reputed to have a good engineering school. Matt wanted to be an engineer. That was a dream from a younger age, apparently, because by the time I met him at community college he’d given up engineering in favor of computers, eventually settling on Information Systems.\’c3\’82\’c2\~ But the plan for him to go to U of I still existed. That’s the way I remember it anyway, although Mystie might have corrections? Anyway, Matt was going to U of I – so, lo and behold, Mystie wanted to go to U of I as well! But she needed a room-mate, so one day, on the way to American Lit she asked “Hey, Elly, do you want to be roommates at the U of I?” I didn’t even know U of I existed. But the thought of going away to school and rooming with Mystie was appealing, the U of I business school was very welcoming and, perhaps most importantly, I had a strong suspicion that if I attended at U of I, Michael would want to attend U of I.\’c3\’82\’c2\~And the rest, as they say, is history.\par
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So,\’c3\’82\’c2\~5 1/2 years and two babies later I like to tell people that I earned my accounting degree at U of I because they had a reputation for having a good engineering school!
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Why the University of Idaho?5 comments to Why the University of Idaho? |
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Eh, I feel obligated to make corrections to the technical content here: my mom didn’t go to UI, and as far as I know she didn’t have any special attachment to it. (My mother’s family are big WSU fans. She went to WSU/EWU.) And actually, the only kind of engineering I was ever seriously interested in was aeronautical engineering, for which I had my eye on Embrey-Riddle. The real reason I went to UI is because they gave me a $12,000 scholarship (of which some $6,000 or so wasted away unused, thanks to the fact I only attended two years). That plus the Western Undergraduate Exchange program made it substantially cheaper to attend UI than WSU. (Speaking of that, didn’t both you *and* Michael get that Graue scholarship also? Out of, what, 4 of them that were offered that year or something? Talk about weird.)\par
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Anyway, never let the facts get in the way of a good story.
Another possibly pertinent fact is that for a year or so (until it came time to apply, really), my parents’ plan was for me to go to NSA. And I did hear a theory from Barbara late at night during one particular sleep-over after I had decided I didn’t want to go to NSA and I was trying to figure out where to go and how to get to UI, where Matt had chosen to go. Barbara, my source of supreme encouragement when it came to matters of her brother (because conversations with Matt never remotely came close to admitting anything beyond passing friendship), offered her theory that Matt had chosen UI based on the assumption that I would be in Moscow and NSA.
After all, Matt, scholarships didn’t come until *after* applying. 
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So, Elly, what I have wondered is that if Michael hadn’t decided he would go, would you have gone? And if you hadn’t gone, would my parents have let me go? And if I hadn’t gone, would Matt have changed, also? So, instead of Michael going because of Matt, perhaps we all went because of Michael!
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I will always remember that sunny day walking out of Lee’s American Lit class and saying somewhat in jest, “So, Elly, want to be my roommate at U of I?” — And then realized you really would consider it!
Ahhh… I stand corrected. I could’ve sworn U of I’s engineering school and your mother had something to do with it, Matt! Oh well – my memory’s always been a little faulty – and besides, everything relating to your and Mystie’s… er… unannounced attachment was so shrouded in mystery it’s not unreasonable that I should’ve gotten a little confused.
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Either way we weren’t planning on getting married for 2 years anyway, so either place was kind of the same as far as Michael was concerned. \par
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So.. I’m still a little confused, really – Mystie, you decided to go to U of I because that was where Matt was going… and Matt was deciding to go to U of I because you were theoretically going to be at NSA? And you’re right, Mystie – the scholarships weren’t really offered until around – oh, January, about the time that we went to our first ball in Moscow – I remember because when I went to meet with our advisor (remember Dana, Matt?) she started to tell me about this really great student who had applied from the Vancouver area who WOULD be eligible for the Graue if he wasn’t a normal transfer student instead of a Running Start student – and I guessed that she was talking about Michael and informed her that in fact, he was a Running Start student. And we applied in the fall and if Matt applied before we did…then the scholarships must’ve been a later inducement!
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I think I probably would’ve gone to U of I anyway even if Michael hadn’t come, Mystie – I was pretty set on finishing up my accounting degree and it was either at home at WSU-Tri-Cities or at U of I with you.
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Anyway – if Matt went to U of I because Mystie might potentially be going to NSA – and then Mystie went to U of I instead because Matt was going there, and then I went because of Mystie, and Michael went because of me – then we all ended up at U of I because Mystie’s parents were interested in NSA! So you see – it’s funny any way you look at it.
Oh yes! I remember that ball! Actually, the blue of your dress for that ball is our definition of “Elly Blue” and “Elly Green.” And you and I stayed overnight in the Tower and did eat once at Bob’s, which was remodeled by the time we actually went there, so it didn’t seem at all like the same place. Even though we had cube steaks in the freezer at one point, I refused to try my hand at “chicken-fried steak.”\par
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Seems like I remember engineering having something to do with it, too…and Marj’s part of it was the elimination of Central (where she went for a year or two) as a possibility.
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I remember thinking it’d be pretty funny if “Mitchell the Mormon” showed up as the fourth Graue scholar at UI and he was in all your classes there, as well, competing for grades and talk-time.
Oh, yes – Mitchell the Mormon another student with “Running Start” written all over him. Who says there was any competing going on?