It's Mike's last day of school. I am relieved. No more homework for ME! Yay! Nobody tells you this before you're a parent but YOU end up completely revisiting school, through your child. You become a tutor, a school advocate, and on occasion, penniless, as you're socked with all sorts of activity fees and book fees, and everything else.
The parent gets "schooled" as much as the child.
Michael is starting high school in August, which blows my mind. I was talked to another parent the other day and she was saying Lakeside is such a huge school, and I laughed. Farrague High School, where I attended from 1976-1980 is a HUGE school. Last time I was in Knoxville, we drove around the school a bit, and my kids eyes were like saucers, staring at the enormous campus. There were more than 3,000 kids there when I was there.
She was right about the social challenges of a ginormous school. You can feel swallowed up if you don't have a core group of buddies.
I always made friends in each of my classes, but I only had a few close friends in high school, a tiny group. I did a lot of Drama Club and Newspaper activities, and Chorus. Those things were what made the whole experience fun.
Michael was in an incredibly foul humor last night, for unknown reasons. He said he was happy and sad. He will miss his school friends. I told him to get contact info and maybe he could see them over the summer.
Transitions are hard for him. He had to leave behind his birthmom [however abusive and awful, she was his original mom] and go to an orphanage. Then he had to leave his friends there are come to a new country, new family, new language, new everything. Now here's another big transition. I am so sympathetic but there's not much I can do to help.
Here he is in 2008. How time flies...
