Senior year insanity

Before Pierre and God come in to the picture, the teenager has to get in to college. And before college, he has to survive his senior year.

Last night was open house at the high school. We got to spend 10 minutes in each class, meeting the teachers, getting a quick recap of what the year will be like for them, and hearing things like "you should have already heard about this from your child".

Ummm, no. Teenagers, by definition, do not communicate with their parents.

The teenager, if you haven't been following along, is in a program called IB, or International  Baccalaureate. To quote the Urban Dictionary definition, IB is "A malicious program aimed at the unnaturally brighter population in an attempt to overload their brains, thus reducing them to vegetables without lives ... In an attempt to shove too much information down the throats of students, the program ends up significantly improving the core skill required to succeed in IB: Bullshit." Thus the phrase 'IB, therefore I BS' was born. 

And seriously, that BS thing is pretty accurate.  

We are also in the midst of the college application process at the moment, which is confusing and overwhelming. He's decided to apply early action to Georgetown and U Chicago. He's also looking at applying to Brown, Northeastern, U Maryland, UW, and possibly NYU. At the moment his plan is to major in philosophy with a focus on politics and to get into a pre-law program.

That give me a headache.

Other than college essays and IB insanity, he is also taking an extra period to work on the student paper. We learned last night that 60 students applied to be part of the staff and they only took 18, which makes it pretty cool that he is part of this team. I'm excited to see his first byline!

He is also working one day a week (teaching swim lessons), playing soccer, and on a local swim team. He is even considering joining the high school swim team, which is MAJOR because he has fought us on joining school sports for years. I'm excited to watch him compete. I love watching him play soccer, I get to see a side of him I normally miss (social, competitive, focused on something other than academics).

The insanity that is senior year for IB kids; it's crazy. We are consumed with college essays, his extended essay, IB exams, community service requirements, soccer, (possibly two) swim team(s), his job, the student paper ... and somewhere in there is sleep, family time and a social life he has just begun to embrace. Not to mention grauation, senior prom, senior party, graduation party, his 18th birthday ... it's going to be a crazy, emotional year.

And then it will be done.

And he will leave.

And I will be an emotional wreck.

first day of kindergarten