Not one to flit between interests willy nilly, Maddy wholeheartedly embraces miniature obsessions that become part of her. She had a thing for the violin and The Wizard of Oz at age 3, for Harriet Tubman and presidential politics at age 8, for World War II and Audrey Hepburn at age 12. Right now she has a thing for stripes, 20th century history, photography, orange, and Brown.

Brown University has been one of her dream schools for a long time (at least since this if not before). Knowing we were leaving the country soon, Maddy put an official Brown visit high on her New England bucket list. So we booked a tour and info session and today was the day!

It's a little early to be worrying about applications and, yes, she knows it's a very selective school (to the tune of 30,000 applications for 1500 spots) but dreams are meant to be a stretch, right? (Cue Fame scene: You got big dreams? You want fame? Well fame costs and right here is where you start paying, in sweat. Of course, we all know that getting into a selective school is not just about hard work and great scores but also about luck, timing, location, and the mysterious mixture of the entering freshman class and je ne sais quoi they're looking for. That's a post for another day, though.) This was like window shopping at Tiffany's. She knows it's a long shot but I love that she's all in, dreaming big anyway.

Delightful tour guides. They won me over, even though they said right up front they wouldn't answer questions about Emma Watson. And I was curious, since she was in their entering freshman class and is reportedly returning to finish with the class this year. Oh well.

Maddy patiently tolerated my surreptitious photo documentation. Believe me, I exercised restraint.

Look! She fits right in.
It was a dreamy day.