He Did It!

It's that time of year: graduations.  But this time, it's ours - our boy ... young man, actually ... has graduated from high school.  In some ways, it seems like it went by so quickly, and in other ways, it has been so, so long.  The past month has been endless, and the work was supposed to have been finished at least five weeks ago.  Maybe that's why it has been sooo endless.

Of course, the unfinished work was in English.  Math has never been a problem for my boy.  Engineering has been his place to shine this year, confirming for him, and for us, the correctness of his decision to enter an engineering program in the fall. But English?  Oh dear.

His teacher has been unbelievable - working with him at every turn; modifying assignments; meeting with him; clarifying things if they weren't clear; re-modifying.  This last assignment wasn't even an essay, so I (foolishly, apparently) thought it wouldn't be a big deal.  Two weeks later, I was ready to pull all my hair out of my head.  My boy doesn't let anything disturb his "ultimate mellow."  And he'll sit endlessly in front of the computer and do ... nothing.  Sigh.

Finally, he got the initial piece done.  But he hadn't gotten some information that he wanted to use.  We had persuaded him that getting this in, while waiting for the information, was essential.  And that when/if he got the information, he could add the additional piece, and it should be just a little addendum.

Hah!

The new information came.  He sat in front of the computer for over a week, and did ... nothing.  I reminded him that the final grades had to be submitted.  He acknowledged the truth of what I said, and did ... nothing.  Finally, finally, finally, after about ten days, he made the changes.  Once he started actually working, it probably wasn't more than a couple of hours worth of work (I'm guessing here, because I don't know how involved PowerPoint is, at the level he uses it).

The payoff: the teacher LOVED it!  My boy is actually very skilled at this kind of technology.  He uses it in ways that the average high school student, even in this age of "all the kids do this stuff," does not.  I'm very happy, and very proud.

And my boy graduated from high school, surrounded by hundreds of his "peers," most of whom he has never met, and he doesn't know, and who don't know him.  He sat appropriately (for the most part) and listened to endless speeches, talking about how they all came into the school four years ago (when this was his first and only year at the school), and shared all these experiences (about which he had no knowledge), yet he was part of them.  He loved throwing his cap at the end, and remembered to save his tassel first.  He glowed.  

And his transcript will show that he graduated from our local high school, with a respectable GPA, passing all his courses (this was not always a given), and having taken rigorous college preparatory senior year classes.  He is justifiably proud of himself.  And next year, he is preparing to enter his next phase: studying engineering at a four year university!  Wow!