Student of the Month

Last Thursday before I headed out for Tucson, I went to a breakfast at Ethan's school to celebrate all the "Student of the month" recipients.  When he handed me the invitation, I looked at him and said, "are you sure this is for you?"  Don't get me wrong, me kid is a sweetie pie and the most willing of my children to help me -with the exception of Jordyn - but he can be a punk.  

Isn't it always reassuring when someone tells you something nice about your kid and you sigh a huge sigh of relief because it's what you have been trying desperately to teach them, but by all accounts looks like you are failing while they are at home with you?

It reminds me of a talk by one of the presenters at TOFW that I was at over the weekend.  It's actually one of the talks that I didn't get to see because I decided to drive us the 7 hours back early to get my ill friend home.  Anyway.  They always give a little pre-view at the beginning of the morning for what they will be talking about later.  She was going to talk about the girl that was on guided tour and when they stopped for a bathroom break she changed her clothes and did something different with her hair.  When she boarded the bus no one recognized her.  This made them think she was missing and so they organized a search party.  She joined the search party for the poor missing girl.  It wasn't until several hours later and it was 3 am that they finally realized that the girl they were looking for was part of the search party looking for her.  She was looking for herself!  Why was she looking for herself?  Because she didn't recognize the description given of her.  

How funny and how sad is that?  I'm sure it was going to be an amazing talk.  Just the story was enough to have me create my own application.  How often are we guilty of not being able to identify properly those around us- they change and we still see the old them. How often do we find ourselves feeling like we are lost and searching for who we really are because we seem to make the same mistakes over and over again. We have a different vision for ourselves than our reality. Or someone pays us a compliment on a character trait and we think; "are you sure you are talking about me? Or. Did I do that?(in your best urkel voice- of course)" Why are we unable to see ourselves or those around us as we/they really are.

OK, enough of my little sidetrack, my little man earned himself a student of the month award and I'm super proud!

 All the recipients of the award for 6th- 8th grade and all the different teams. Some of the teams went all out in describing the wonderful and amazing students and had elaborate gifts for them.  Ethan did get a bag full of goodies, though his team wasn't mushy about it by going on and on about how awesome they or the parents that raised them are. Just congratulations and heres' your stuff. Short and sweet, just how I like it.