So last night I sat with my oldest and we reviewed his course program for high school. This week is registration for incoming Freshmen and I just can’t believe my little boy is going to be a Freshmen, like how?!!! After my initial shock wore off that the time is here, we picked out his schedule for next school year. It was so much fun reading all the courses and what they offer. I saw so many classes I would have loved to take like sculpture, world crafts, jewelry designs of the world, ceramics, global foods, and fear and fiction to name a few, but of course he didn’t want any of those Lololololol. He gets to pick 6 classes next year, English, Science, Social Studies, and Math take up 4 of those slots so he gets 2 electives. He interviewed to be part of a program that if he gets in takes up 1 slot every year for the 4 years he is in high school so he really only gets to pick 1 slot as an elective if he gets in. After much consideration he decided on Spanish, if he doesn’t get into the program he interviewed for then the other elective would be wood working which I must admit I LOVE!!!
See (story time), I grew up in Chicago so in 1999 we had to take a separate test for every “good” public high school we wanted to go to, and for me my dream high school was Lane Technical High School as it was known then, I think now its Lane Tech College Prep. I hate standardized tests and I still remember my mom dropping me off at the school that looked like a college and finding the cafeteria to take a test and in true Janet form as soon as I got to the math section I fell asleep!!! Thank goodness I only fell asleep for like 15 min but man did I cry so hard when I got home thinking I ruined my chance to get in. My brother had gone there and spoke about how awesome the school was and I needed to go and all I had to do was place well in the test and get in but of course I thought the worse and thought I ruined my chance. I ended up getting in though and it was the best news ever!!! I can still see the big envelope in the mail with my name and the school’s name and me jumping up and down screaming and immediately calling my best friend, Elaine to see if she got in. We both went to a small private school so our graduating class was like 20 I think and the incoming freshmen class was close to 1000 for this school so I really hoped we would get in together and have each other and she did! She is super smart though and got placed in their “Alpha” program so that meant the chance of having a class with her besides gym or lunch were super slim. Thank goodness we had been best friends since 2nd Grade and our bond was strong and we still managed to find time to hang out with her strenuous school work and my intense sports schedule.
Anyways, back to the point of my story, back then we had 3 options to decide what we would do for the next 4 years of high school, you could change it but that meant you still had to do the prerequisites of that “major” they were Art, Band, and Tech. I didn’t want to practice an instrument so no band for me, and my stick figure drawing still needs help to this day so art was a no, so the obvious major for me was Tech. As Freshmen we had to have a huge T Square for our architecture classes and we had to take shop classes, auto shop, electric shop, print shop, and WOOD SHOP, were our classes. I was lucky and had my brother’s T Square so I didn’t have to shuffle mine back and forth to class and home for homework and I didn’t get noticed as a Freshmen right away, but I didn’t know what to expect for wood shop except that my brother loved it!!! I ended up LOVING my wood shop class, I still think about how awesome that class was and speak highly of it to my sons. We got to build a shield, a key chain, a cutting board, and other random things but to be given the chance to explore something I had no idea I would love so much was amazing!! I was very fortunate in the fact that we were only suppose to have wood shop for a semester but our print shop teacher for the next semester got sick so they kept us in the same class for the year and I am so thankful for that because to this day it is still one of my favorite classes ever. I am sad to hear they don’t offer those architecture or shop classes anymore at my old high school so to have my son here in some little suburb of Minnesota have that opportunity to explore it I am beyond ecstatic. I do want him to get into the program he interviewed for but if he doesn’t I don’t think he will be too upset and will be able to take the woodworking class.
I just can’t believe he is growing so fast and as much as I wish time would slow down a little I can’t help to feel proud of the young man he is becoming. I hope high school treats him well and he ends up making some awesome friends, but if days get too hard for him I will for sure tell him one of my many embarrassing stories I have from my high school days. I was very fortunate and besides having Elaine already I met my other future best friends that I am still best friends with for over 20+ years. I will ask them if they will let me post their pictures so as posts go along you can see who I am speaking about lolol
Adventures of Janet 