In six days my teenager graduates high school. Graduating in the Twilight Zone is bad enough, she’s been fighting from behind the eight ball since she was small, and it was only when she arrived in high school that the special education department admitted that she needed the help….took them long enough.
I’m proud of her. Shes a young lady with a good heart…we’ll get her sorted the rest of the way somehow.
There are some days when I can remember my own graduation as if it were yesterday – but I can’t remember what actually happened yesterday. It’s like our high school years are somehow hardwired into our memory…and the rest of it is just free floating ether.
It wasn’t until I saw the struggles the kid had in school that I realized that she got it from me. So the coping mechanisms I’ve learned over the years are what I’m desperately trying to hardwire into her now. But she’s gotta want it I think. It’s about the desire to learn….her pandemic buddies in England are going a long way to helping with the motivation to learn.
The world has changed a LOT from days hanging out in and around Manchester, Missouri. I remember driving to school the last year and making excuses to drive by the house where my crush lived. Today that sort of behavior would be a reason to call cops.
Then a boy I let get away started work at the leather jacket store in Chesterfield Mall, so of course on the weekends that store was always on the list.
It wasn’t until I went to college that I lost myself to some mental problems. I was too invested in boys, but I wasn’t pretty enough to be a sorority sister so my company wasn’t the best.
I wasn’t good at college at that age.
All my troubles centered on boys and booze and I had no self control. There were other messes, and I hit bottom. It made me move from one university to another. At least I knew I was where I needed to be and I needed to buckle down. I met the man I’d marry and I finally graduated. My poor parents…
I was much better 10 years later with all but straight A’s. But then I wanted to be there. I almost cried at the introductory day because I was SO HAPPY to be there.
Maybe it’ll be the same for her at some point in the next few years. It’ll be something she wants to do not what she’s expected to do. I raised my teen to not worry about makeup or what boys think. Its bitten me when I wanted her to be a little girlie, but it’s also kept her out of the wrong set of friends. I’m just worried it’s stopped her from learning the rules of social niceties. It’s kept her from judging her value through a boys eyes…I made that mistake and it screwed up life for awhile. I just wanted her to not make the mistakes I did…and it just opened a pack of different ones.
It’s taken me 50 years to understand that life isn’t about avoiding mistakes, it’s about learning from the ones you do make.
What might I have done if I hadn’t gone to school. I was too chubby for military service but I think I’d have tried to make that work. She wanted that for about 5 minutes, then it was onto something else.
Attention Deficit Disorder is a bane of my existence…the new word for this in the YouTube arena is neurodivergent.
In todays world i think maybe we’re all neurodivergent in some form or fashion. It’s just a matter of the flavor and the severity. Once you know how to cope you survive.
Imagecollectors.online 