Class of 2011

This is the last week of school in our town. For Mr. Well Rounded, it is the last week of high school ever. He graduates this coming Friday. He is quite excited to be done with high school and go off to a Bible college where he will be around like minded people for a while. This has been a difficult year for him.

In the middle of 5th grade, we were told by his teacher that we would be better off homeschooling him. They did not have a gifted program in the budget (we had just left a school district with a wonderful gifted program) and the school had run out of ways to challenge him. His three siblings were already being homeschooled so bringing him home was not a difficult decision. He was home for the rest of 5th grade as well as 6th, 7th and 8th grades. He went to public school for 8th grade band and science and after school sports (soccer, basketball and track). Near the end of 8th grade Mr. Well Rounded decided that maybe it was time for him to go back to public school for high school. I did not object as I had run out of ways to challenge him as well. After meeting with the assistant principal and a school counselor, we decided that his going to high school full time would be a good fit. There were classes to challenge him, and while he didn't like some of the required classes, he put up with them. He was social and had many friends--most of them from the marching band which he participated in the summer following 8th grade.

Fast forward four years and he is now a senior...a senior not only tired of high school and all its drama but a senior tired of this high school and many of the fake people that occupy it. This senior year has been a difficult one. This has been the year that he has stood most strong for his faith and has suffered because of it. Students who once called themselves his friend have turned their backs on him and stabbed him in the back in the process. (Not the forementioned marching band friends--while they are not a close group anymore, they are still friends) Most of his difficulties have come from one particular group.

High school is a difficult process. Some kids come out unscathed but those are few. I think those are the kids who are not heavily involved in activities...kids who go through the motions, do decently and keep to their small group of friends, never branching out. Mr. Well Rounded was a very busy high school student--academics, athletics and the arts all fill his high school resume. He has friends from each group and there are some from each group who have given him much heartache. I guess that is all part of the experience.

If I could do over, I don't know that I would be as quick to agree to his returning to school. But I believe that BHS is a better school because Mr. Well Rounded walked its halls and proclaimed his faith throughout them. I will miss him tremendously as he goes off to begin the next phase of his life, but I know that ultimately he is God's child and is in God's hands.