A senior, a sophomore and a junior

School is OUT for all three kids (and for me!) and that is a good thing. To think that next year at this time Jacob will be graduating from college is a wild one. Here's a look at the kids and where they are school wise.

Jacob- will be a senior at the University of Cincinnati. He is on schedule to graduate on time despite taking a semester completely off of classes in order to do a co-op. He is able to do that because he entered college with a half a semester's worth of college credit thanks to taking AP and college classes in high school. Jacob has never shied away from hard work- whether it is studying for school or working two jobs during the summer to earn spending money. He's also worked during the school year some of the time he's been in college. He has been active in an honors business fraternity, has made many friends whom he's gone on trips with and made lots of memories with, and has maintained high grades to boot. Proud of my Bub!

I hope and pray that his senior year in college is normal. By normal I mean not like his first three years of college. By normal I mean pre pandemic when kids went away to college and weren't sent home to finish out the semester (his first year), did not take every class remotely though living on campus (his second year), did not have to wear masks every where on campus (his third year). 

This summer will be the first one ever that Jacob has not lived at home. I guess it's good preparation for... the rest of his life when we won't live with us. He is living in Cincinnati working at an insurance agency for the summer.

Like father, like son- Donnie attended University of Cincinnati for his undergraduate degree. He enjoys talking with Jacob about college life there and of course enjoyed this past football season when UC had such a good season. 

I wrote about it when it happened but am repeating it now... Back in the fall of 2020, Jacob and his roommates were in their house (that they were renting) at UC when they heard commotion outside. They opened up windows and saw a local TV's station news crew standing on the sidewalk near their house. When one of the news crew saw the boys, the person asked Jacob and his roommate if they wanted to be on TV (tantalizing!) to be interviewed regarding the pandemic and how it was impacting them. The boys responded that they were going to pass; they did not want to be interviewed. Thank goodness! Anything less than them saying they've never been within six feet of anyone and were double masked even when alone was likely going to portray them negatively. The news segment title was called, "College Kids and Covid-19... Not Following the Rules." Even though the boys weren't interviewed, the new segment showed a short video of them (it just panned across their house). The picture on the left is a picture taken from the video.

Abby

Abby recently completed her first year at Miami (of Ohio) University. A public college with a pride in its academic strength and picturesque setting bordering on hubris, Miami was an easy choice for Abby to make when she considered her options. Receiving a generous scholarship, getting accepted into the business school, and knowing she would be close to home made the transition from full time at home student to college student easier (Abby spent her senior year of high school at home, taking all of her high school and college classes online). 

Abby has navigated the college scene cautiously/ soberly (Miami is a party school and Abby is not a party girl!), became involved in a Christian student organization, changed her major, found a nice group of friends, and had a 4.0 GPA her second semester (her GPA was good her first semester but not 4.0 good!).

Abby is strong in her convictions and doesn't sweat the small stuff. Early in the first semester, she attended a meeting for her preferred political party's college group and when the speaker said something about the pandemic that Abby disagreed with, she told us that she just got up and left the meeting.  (To add some clarity, the meeting was outside (so that attendees didn't have to wear masks) and Abby was on the edge of the group so her leaving didn't cause some overt showing of disavowal- she wasn't trying to prove a point or cause a scene- she just had no desire to waste her time listening to incorrect rhetoric).

At about this time last year, Abby was considering trying out for Miami's dance team. I was hoping she would try out (and was almost certain she would make the team- all bias (plenty of that!) aside, a lot of empirical evidence pointed to her having a great shot at making it) in part because I wanted to continue to be able to watch her dance. She considered trying out but ultimately decided that being on the team would take up too much time.  Without knowing exactly the rigor of her classes, but just that in general to get good grades she would need to devote a lot of time to studying, she did not want to commit to a time consuming activity. Of course I understood her reasoning and it was her decision to make so I got over it. But... when she decided to try out for a play her second semester of college, I could not contain my excitement that I would get to see Abby on stage and that she was flexing her creative/ performance muscle.

Alyssa

Alyssa just finished her sophomore year of high school. She will be a junior in a few months. A junior!! You cannot convince yourself that you have a lot of time left with your baby when you know how quickly those two years will go by. The only thing to do is try to enjoy the time we have left with her before she flies the coop. Alyssa's year of school was a bit rough. Alyssa had some crazy hard classes with lengthy assignments, presentations and tests where average grades were really low. She studied hard and got good grades but it came at the price of stress and late nights. Her cross country season ended disappointingly with Alyssa getting sick two days before the regional meet so she couldn't run in it.  On the other hand, many good things happened this school year- the most exciting one being turning sixteen and getting her drivers license. Alyssa loves to drive; it's been bittersweet to see her take off (literally) but at the same time there are plenty of good things about her having her license.  Alyssa has a great group of friends and has made some great memories with them.

This was from cross country not track though she's on a track... at some XC meets, the course ends on a track. That was the case here. Love how she just finished ahead of the girls beside her (I think the finish line is the first blue line...).

As disappointing as getting sick right before regionals was, Alyssa was happy for her XC best friend who was the alternate runner for regionals. With Alyssa unable to run, her best friend got to run in the regional meet. Alyssa was happy for her- her friend ended up running a good race. 

The inexorable hand of time moves perpetually and when the youngest reaches certain milestones, it's impossible to not get a little sentimental. So much sweetness (as well as some not so sweetness...) between my Valentine baby's birth and her sweet 16.

As for me, this school year was my 8th one subbing. I'm undecided about whether or not I will continue. I like so much about subbing- mainly the ability to chose when I work and not having to work during school breaks. But.... now I can work more (since Alyssa can drive, I don't need to be available to take her places) and in some ways having more of a fixed schedule sounds ideal. Right now, I'm planning on renewing my sub license, spending some time exploring other job opportunities and enjoying the summer! 

One story from my subbing this year-  I had a long term sub job in a 6th grade classroom. It lasted a quarter of the school year and ended right at Christmas break. To make the classroom a tab bit festive, I brought in a small Christmas tree from home that I could plug in and light up. It was in a ceramic pot and one day, one of the students accidentally knocked the pot to the ground and the ceramic pot broke. Many of the students wrote little tributes to the pot. It was such a silly thing to do yet funny and endearing, too. Kids in 6th grade are unpredictable and funny and sometimes terrible and sometimes awesome all in one day!! 

I could have turned their notes into a learning opportunity and explained that "rip" as used in this context is an acronym and should have been written as, "RIP."