59

Tomorrow my son will graduate from high school! I am stealing this idea from some friends who add one thing great about their kids for every year of their life on their birthdays, and I'm "tweaking" it a little. Below is 13 things my son has experienced through his school years, one for each year;

kindergarten: son says, "the best thing about being in school is THE PLAYGROUND!"

first grade: received a certificate of award for "Outstanding Effort" and 2 for "Good Work Completion".

second grade: was the subject of his teacher's thesis paper (for Master's degree) and in so doing was one of the top readers in his class.

third grade: was featured in the local newspaper as a student at our elementary school.

fourth grade: went skiing with his class to celebrate the winter Olympics and spent 2 hours waiting in the cold to catch a glimpse of the torch coming through town.

fifth grade: the start of our home school journey. when asked "in what way would you improve yourself?" he answered, "none, I like myself just the way I am."

sixth grade: entered our city council poetry contest and took third place with a collection of poems he wrote.

seventh grade: while learning about Marine biology he wrote a report on and "adopted" an Atlantic green sea turtle. (Riverhead Foundation)

eighth grade: guitar & lessons.

ninth grade: started learning how to build computers. (so he can fix the old ones people hand-down to us)

tenth grade: end of home school, start of private school. joins soccer team and takes Region Championship!

eleventh grade: impresses classmates with his grasp of the Finnish language.

twelfth grade: is one of the producers/directors of MVTV. (school t.v. program) and journalist for school paper.

Now these are just a few of the things he has experienced through his years of school. Of course he also had many other awards, recognitions, achievements and experiences. I hope my son will look back on these school years and remember what a good time it was for him, be proud of the education he worked for (we pushed on him), and be excited to close this chapter in his life and open the next one with courage, faith, and desire for success!

CONGRATULATIONS SON! You made it! WE ARE PROUD OF YOU! Now go make your millions! (I'm thinking early retirement)

"Some succeed because they are destined to, most succeed because they are determined to."