We went to Jazz’s scheduling information meeting at his school last night. Even though the process sounds incredibly complicated, it’s nice to see them get the kids more involved in the process.
In essence, the kids with the better attendance this semester have first dibs on their classes for next year. This is to promote good attendance, of course. Then, in May, they will all gather in the gym and do an “arena-type” scheduling thing – it sounds really confusing. I hope it’s not for the kids. But it’ll be nice to have Jazz more involved in his classes.
I wish they had done something like this for Dude. (Dude is a senior this year). It used to take us FOREVER to go through his schedule because I could never get him to decide on any classes. I would finally (and this was literally after three hours of just sitting there, waiting on him to decide something) have to pick his classes for him.
I’m afraid I’ve done more harm than good when it comes to Dude. Now that he’s faced with trying to decide his course of action after high school, he’s stumped once again. He’s so used to my doing his thinking for him that he is out of his element.
Granted, not many 18-year olds know what they want to do after high school, but still, he doesn’t have a clue where to even start. We’ve offered many alternatives, but nothing seems to have sparked his interest. I’ve been making him come to the office after school to study for the ACT test. He’ll be re-taking the test in April. If I don’t make him study, he won’t. And he really needs to earn a better score if he wants to go to college at some future point.
I’ve also been making him look at our community college courses and he’ll also look at what Missouri State University offers, as well. Again, he doesn’t have to decide on a future right this minute, and he certainly has the option of changing course once he starts pursuing something and decides he doesn’t want to go that route, nothing is written in stone, especially at this point, but he needs to do SOMETHING. Even if that something is not something he wants to do with his life.
Kevin is suggesting he take the A+ certification program. This program would allow him to work at computer fix-it places – he would be fixing computer issues for people. He did such a great job building his own computer (with no help from either of us, thank you very much) and seemed to enjoy it so much, that Kevin thinks that might be a good place for him to start. He would have a job doing what he loves to do and he could then decide whether he wanted to take more computer / IT classes.
He doesn’t exactly act THRILLED with that idea (but then again, he’s a pretty low key kind of teenager anyway), but he’s not outright rejecting the idea either, so … it’s a start, I think.
Kevin and I talked … and we decided to forego the Documentation Specialist position. I did a lot of research about the position and the company and it just didn’t seem like a good fit for me. Instead, I’m actively pursuing a clerical job in the health care field. We’ll see where that takes us.
It’s both frustrating, and exciting, to be on the precipice of a new beginning. Kevin is starting his accounting company, I’m looking for a new career, Dude is starting a new life and Jazz will be learning to drive and will soon be more independent.
I feel like we have a lot of balls up in the air, at the moment. There are so many unknowns at this point. I don’t handle uncertainty very well. I’m okay with change, as long as I know what that change is. It’s the not knowing that drives me nuts.
I feel a bit lost.
Write From Karen 