My youngest son graduates from high school in 116 days. It may sound silly that I’m counting down the days, but even sillier than that is the fact that I’ve actually been counting down for the past 34 months. Almost 3 years. I love this child like crazy – but his graduating from high school marks the beginning of the next part of my life and I can hardly wait for that.
This kiddo had a rough go of his freshman year. His grades were sucky, and he struggled to find a balance between his personal time and time required for school work. His last year of middle school had seen him lacking any desire to go to school in the first place; we met with the truancy officer a few times because of it. And while his grades weren’t great as a Freshman, he was at least showing up. During his sophomore year something happened and he became an A student. It was kind of freaky to watch. Nothing changed outwardly, he just excelled at his classes. He had such good grades that at the end of 10th grade when he forecasted for 11th grade he picked multiple advanced classes that offered college credit. He picked, on his own, Pre-calculus and Trig. “Who does that?” Says the mom that just barely passed “general math” in high school. Unfortunately he struggled with the math and lost some self-confidence and fell back into not wanting to even show up. He did show up, more than he did during that last year of middle school, and he did well in AP Biology, but math plagued him and his junior year was riddled with less than A grades. But here we are, finally, in his senior year and gosh it’s going well. He was really sick last week with some flu thing. He threw up quietly Wednesday morning and when I told him he wasn’t going to school he argued with me about it. Argued! I won. He didn’t go. In fact, he was so ill he didn’t go for the rest of the week. But the mere fact that he would argue with me over his need to be at school, because he likes it, was a turning point.
So this one is graduating and I am thrilled. He’s been in the same school district since he started kindergarten. For some people that’s a normal occurrence. When I grew up it was not. In fact I went to so many schools between kindergarten and high school that I cannot name them all. My parents were educated gypsies and we moved all the time. Sometimes twice in one school year. My ex-husband’s family moved a lot too, albeit not as much as my family. When we moved to the town we currently live in the oldest was in 4th grade and the youngest was getting ready to start kindergarten. We knew we would not be moving until he graduated from high school because it was that important to both of us. So here we are.
E started kindergarten with his best friend, who he met 5 months before kindergarten started when we moved into this town. And in 116 days the two of them will graduate together, as best friends. Have they been best friends throughout the 13 years? No. But they’ve stayed friends. Over the years they went through periods of hanging out with other groups of people, trying to figure out who they were, but in the end they have returned to their best friend status and it is an amazing thing to witness.
Their birthdays are two weeks apart. When they turned 5 they each received a Jeep as a gift. Here is a picture:
This is a picture of them taken a couple weeks ago. In an effort to recreate the above:
Anyway. I love and adore both of my kids and without doubt both are special. This kid tugs at my heart in a different manner than his brother and I am so very proud and excited for him and his future. It made me want to write. That is all.
Have a good day people.
Peace.
You’re such an amazing mom, concentrating on your kids when you’re on the verge of something so sweet and beautiful yourself ❤
I’m so excited for all of you!