“Aren’t you going to the zoo for college?”

Yes. I’m definitely going to zoo college. Wouldn’t that be fun?

I have actually decided to attend the University of Missouri in Columbia in the fall, otherwise known as Mizzou.

All of my second and third graders have been along the ride for my college visits and decision making journey, but there is a third grader I nanny for everyday who hasn’t heard much about the process aside from when I made my decision.

She had remembered me saying I was going somewhere with the word zoo in it, but she couldn’t quite remember where exactly I had decided to go.

That is how this beautiful quote was born.

She first asked me if I was going to the zoo for college while we were drawing one day. I told her, not quite, but I thought that was funny.

I explained to her that it wasn’t the zoo, but actually Mizzou in Missouri.

She then followed that statement up by asking why I was going to the zoo nine hours away in Missouri when I could go to the zoo here in Dallas.

I just laughed and went back to my drawing.

Sometimes, it’s easier to just smile and nod than try to explain your point. They’ll figure it out eventually. That’s just how it is.