Son of Mine - Part III

New School, New You
The prelude to this is Son of Mine Part I and II.

Nightcrawler:2025 – 2012

In 2012 we moved from the medium city we lived in to a large town…. Roughly 150K people to 50K people. The city we were living in had grown by 25K people overnight with the oil field drilling and the school districts answer to serving the illegal non-English speaking population was to cut regular honors classes. They would merge the top 5-7% from each high school and put the money for the rest into hiring Spanish speaking teachers.

Moving to a smaller community had its advantages. We knew people, there were no real gangs, and the school he would go to was mostly overachievers – it was a school designed for honors, AP and AP+ classes. Seventy-five percent of all students participated in an extra-curricular activity. Fifty percent participated in more than three extracurricular activities.

It’s amazing what a new environment can do to help you re-invent yourself.

I told him the first two weeks to hit everything on the football field hard and no one will mess with you because they will fear you. He could make friends fast and did with a tight group who had grown up together but willing to let in an outsider.

Havasupai Falls – Mother’s Day 2014

For four years, he could live the life he’d wish he had in elementary and junior high.

He was a success on the football field, wrestling mat, and track. He was a success in the classroom – most of the time. He found out very quickly that college level classes were no joke. He would foster traditions with the community and became a leader in the community. He went from being the kid who wouldn’t defend himself to the kid who didn’t need to defend himself due to his confidence and leadership skills.

What you can learn as a parent:
• You can think you are doing to best job ever but every day when that child leaves home for school, they face a myriad of behaviors and betrayals you can never even imagine
• Take it seriously if your child says they are depressed or thinking of taking their life – if they can think it they can do it
• Sometimes as a parent you make sacrifices – I moved to a smaller community I did not want to move to but the school offered him what he needed and I have a transportable job
• You must feed your child’s passions because in the end only God knows his plan for that child and they need to develop and hone their gifts

His future holds engineering school with a minor in either aerospace or architecture.