Back to School

Happy New Year everyone!!! Wow - it's been a crazy week! Christmas was great - Santa was so good to me, but finally the madness is over, the decorations are put away for another year, and our lives are going to start getting back to normal....

I wanted to talk a little today about Amy....She graduated from high school in 2004, with no idea what the future held for her. I was so gung-ho about her going straight to college, but she just didn't see the sense in wasting her time and other people's money when she didn't know what she wanted to do with her life. So, she packed up and went on a road trip with my parent's for a few months, came back and decided she would give school a try, and she enrolled for the second semester. Almost at the end of that semester, she had an epiphany - she finally knew what her calling was. I was so happy....until she told me what it was.... After all that time (and money), she decided she wanted to be a professional body piercer. I was speechless - but, like any parent, I held it in, offered to help her get into a good apprenticeship program, and supported her. Then it came to the point where she told her father and grandfather of her dream. Bad idea. I swear, if you look up the term 'bad idea' in the dictionary, her conversation with these two men would be given an honorable mention. To say that 'shit hit the fan' would be such a gross understatement.

So, she put off school for another year. She worked hard, traveled, partied, and didn't save a dime. I knew it would come to her eventually, I just hoped it would be sooner than later. There is always a running joke in this house that we would support Amy until Adam gets out of university, and then she'd become his responsibility. I think somewhere deep down in our subconscious, we all knew that this would most likely be the way things would turn out. She was nagged by her grandparents, her father, and some of her close friends, but I knew that it would be a matter of time and it would hit her. If any of you knew Amy, she's not one to be backed into a corner. It would happen when it happened.

This is the time where I have to say that (gulp) I'm grateful for Ben entering her life. As you know, he only came up here for his summer break from university to work for Big Brothers. Amy spent a lot of time volunteering last year with him, and enjoyed it immensely. That girl is a natural born leader, and working with the children brought out something that I had never seen before. She had a purpose. She was making an impact, and changing the lives of children.

She went off to visit Ben last month, and spent a lot of time talking about her future. After all the pressure she had been under from family, he got through to her. She came back, and knew what she wanted to do. She wants to be a Social Worker. And she's beyond excited. I am over the moon excited for her. I could cry.

So, I dropped her off this morning for her 1st day of classes. I'm not a horoscope reader, but I read hers this morning and it basically said that she might as well go back to bed because this was going to be the worst day ever. We laughed about it, and I wished her luck.

Have a great day, everyone! Peace.