Folks, We Have A High School Graduate

As a parent, aren't you constantly amazed at how quickly your children grow up? I specifically remember when my son was almost 4 yrs old, I was sitting in the doorway of his bedroom, pregnant, holding him, and afraid that his little baby brother or sister would feel utterly neglected because I wasn't sure I could ever love the next child as much as I loved my son. Of course, this was after having two girls before him and managing to fall in love with him as well. HA! Oh pregnancy hormones.

My oldest son, almost 18 yrs old has finally donned his cap and gown, and walked across the stage to receive his diploma. Where did the years go? They continually seem to pick up speed. I remember him being in elementary school wondering if I should keep him back in 2nd grade. Then I wondered the same thing in 4th grade. He was struggling academically, but they were more worried about him socially. I think they were actually more worried about how it would reflect on them as a school.

Middle school saw him succeeding, and he started taking meds for ADD. Two of my children have Attention Deficit Disorder, and I and my brother both have it. I'm sensing a theme here. As I said, middle school really ramped up for him and everything was going rather well. He was playing baseball and basketball, but in 7th grade decided baseball was more fun just in our yard with friends.

We moved from Minnesota to Virginia halfway through his 8th grade year. I thought it would be a smooth transition, but it was hard on all of us. High school went ok for him, but he never quite recovered from the move, which is understandable since he'd lived in MN all of his life and grew up with all of the kids. Here he mostly stayed the new kid.

He actually really enjoyed the culinary club he joined after taking the culinary class. Sadly the teacher who ran the club and class moved and the club dissolved. From there he wasn't interested in any of the other clubs he looked into.

Senior year he got to totally take it easy since he'd met most of his requirements. He only had to go to school every other day for a half day. Pretty crazy, eh? Only downside to that was having to go get him from school every afternoon. Let's just say I'm glad that's over with.

His plans are now to go to the local community college to get his basics done inexpensively and then to hopefully go back to Minnesota to finish whatever degree he chooses at one of the Universities. I know he'd love to go to Northwestern in St. Paul like his sisters did, but we'll have to see how successful he is at community college and to see if they have whatever degree program he comes up with.

I'm excited to see what the future has for my favorite oldest son!