It's Getting Closer!

Yesterday I received a letter from Cherokee High School regarding fall enrollment.  My son is in the 8th grade.  This fall he will be in high school.  High school?  Seriously?  I just don't understand what happened.  Writing this and reading it back to myself it seems impossible, absolutely impossible, that he will be in high school.  It's probably harder on my digestion than it is my son's. 

2005

Now let's break that down.  What we will be dealing with are the 3 Ds;  Dating, driving and declaration of independence.  I would also like to throw another D in  for good measure, damage control.  I can remember doing a little bit of that while in that 8-10 year learning curve.  Of course I'm still in a learning curve only it doesn't seem to be so big, damage control isn't the focus of my life anymore. 


Dating is first on the list because I can almost feel that "dating" will happen any day now.  What's up with "dating" these days?  I thought dating was reserved for those around 16 who can actually drive their date to their destination.  If you can't drive yet, where are you going to go on a date unless someone  takes you there?  "Back in the day," the only dates we had at that age involved going to school dances  once or twice a year. We didn't call it dating.  When we were 14 or 15 there was no going to the movies with your girlfriend or boyfriend, or to the mall or anywhere else for that matter.  

2008

Driving is next on the list.  Who is going to teach him? Even though I'm use to it, others are scared when they are in the car with my husband so if he's teaching our son I don't even want to know about it.  I say I'm all for driver's training.  They don't offer it in school but that's okay with me.  I will pay someone to teach him. Something about being in the same car with someone learning to operate 2 tons of metal is a little scary.  Thank goodness I still have a couple of years to forget about him getting behind the wheel.  Right now he talks incessantly about what type of car would make a cool first car.   Well, he'll be driving a bike to school unless he steps it up in the savings department.  His other options are I drive him or he takes the bus. I'm sure that would go over well.  

2011

Last of all,  at least he's taking it slow on his declaration of independence. Okay, first I had to let go of the school work and now this.  What's next?  Am I going to have to let him make up his own mind about a career, marriage, ...  That is a lot to wrap my brain around. So far I think I'm doing fairly well.  I'm trying to remember I'm just along for the ride.  I'm along for the ride until I find out that he needs steering in a different direction. 

Who Did You Vote For? An Innocent Question

It's very interesting how teenagers perceive how the world works.  Many times if your opinion is going against the opinion of others in a group you are considered not normal so I could see how this could hamper a teenagers freedom of speech.  This in a sense is true for adults too.  As the cliche goes, what exactly is normal and who should really care.  


My daughter posed a question directed to me. 

                            "Who did you vote for?"

To which I replied, "What do you mean?"  "Are you talking about the presidential election?"

  

                            She said, "Yes". "Did you vote for Obama?"  

At this point in the conversation my 14 year-old son couldn't hold back a comment so felt compelled to jump into the conversation while my snickering husband was left in the background.

                            "Yes."  


 My son, in his vast life experiences at 14, says 
                           "Oh, well look where that has gotten us."                               


I bet you might be able to guess how the conversation further played out
.
                           "What do you mean by that?" 
                           "Obama and this health care mess we are in."
                           "Please explain."
                           "Well, you know.  First it's global warming and now it's health care."
                           "Oh really, I'm sorry you feel that it is all President Obama's fault."  I actually wanted to say, "What the heck are you talking about?  Seriously!!"  "What don't we throw in the economy along with anything else you can think of."  "Just who have you been talking to?"  


                     "You know, it's pretty incredible he did all of this by himself and in such a short amount of time."


He understood my point.  It didn't happen overnight and it wasn't just one person. Not only that, a lot of the mess we are in has nothing to do with anything except greed. We need more of it right now and the bigger the better. If we reverse that thought the world might even be able to recover.


 I also let him know that he might be pretty surprised how many of his friends may have voted the way I did if they had a chance.  Some teenagers, as well as some adults, do not feel comfortable voicing their opinion on a subject if it may create controversy and ultimately a good ribbing or worse.  It's hard enough to be true to yourself in given situations as an adult let alone during your teenage years.  


My hope is that we could all just recognize that it's okay if we all don't think alike and don't share the same opinion.  Imagine what the world would be like if we did.