<p>The vet I work for will be going to Australia early next spring on a teaching tour. He and his family plan to add on vacation time and travel throughout the country.They’ll also spend a week in New Zealand. They’ll be away for 6-7 weeks and…they invited me to go!!! I can graduate midyear if I just take two required classes this summer. All I will need is airfare and spending money, and I have that saved already. My parents are concerned that I’ll miss out on too many things 2nd semester senior year (prom, senior day, etc). The truth is that I think the chance to go to Australia vs. Prom is a no-brainer. My mom looks back at her senior year as one of the best times of her life and as she says “cherishes the memories”. She also says that I’ll have many opportunities in my life to go to Australia, but only one chance to be a senior in HS. If you all had this chance, looking back would you regret missing out on 2nd semester?</p>
<p>I would say it depends on whether you have a really tight group of friends that you spend time with. Especially that last month of school, there were so many events and away-from-school activities (grad parties, etc.) that I know my son really enjoyed. And no, he didn’t even go to prom (or any other school dance). His group of friends knew that they were dispersing to several diferent colleges, some out of state, and things would never be quite the same, so they really hung together as much as possible. So if you feel you’d miss all that socializing, maybe don’t go to Australia.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if you’re back in time to be there those last few weeks, if they let you particpate in senior honors night even though you already graduated, if you get to go graduation parties, and even have one yourself if you want to . . . go for it!</p>
<p>On the third hand (I have lots of hands!), be very sure of the nature of the trip you are being invited on. Are you expected to do some baby sitting? If so, how much? What would you be able to do while the vet is teaching? Are you spending most of the time in a not too exciting city, or will you get to see a lot of the country? How well do you get along with the vet’s family? Etc., etc.</p>
<p>I applaud your adventurous spirit, and suspect that you <em>will</em> get to Australia, if not next year, then at some point in your life.</p>
<p>IMO only you can answer the question. As Moom said alot depends on your social relationships in high school. My oldest S. had very close friends and enjoyed his last semester tremendously (also had long time girlfriend to share the memories with). My youngest son had few long time friends as his had graduated the year before----he would have jumped at chance to grad early. In fact we looked at possiblility just because he hated high school so much. Found out that colleges look down on it unless you are doing it for a reason such as travel (he didn’t have the opportunity you do). So in short, look into yourself for the answer and then whatever you decide, don’t regret it!</p>
<p>I really can’t see myself having any regrets about going even though I do have a lot of friends in my class. I’ll be gone from the middle of March till the end of April and so I’ll still get to go to all the graduation parties and my GC has already said I’ll be eligible for the Senior Honors Ceremony. My friends,my boyfriend and I hang out a lot after school and that won’t change. As for his family, we get along great and his kids are 14 and 16. They don’t need to be babysat. They’re both homeschooled, and his wife is making this trip part of their curriculum so she has a lot of educational and cultural experiences planned. I can’t see being bored at all. If it’s allowed, I’ll also be able to sit in on his lectures and observe the surgeries. I’m sure most of it will be way over my head but I’m so excited because this is the field I want to go into. So far I’m 90% leaning toward going but my parents are still right at 50/50.</p>
<p>i am usually opposed to early graduation. that is because most students in our area rush off to the local junior college. what’s the hurry for that? i have always said that if an interesting and unusual opportunity would present itself, then i’m all for it–and it sounds like this qualifies!</p>
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<p>Everything else you said made sense…this doesn’t. How can you hang out after school when you are DownUnder? </p>
<p>I’d say this trip sounds like a grand adventure…I’d go.</p>
<p>LOL, I meant that we’d still hang out before and after the trip! I see them more outside of school than during school except for lunch. I think it’ll be a grand adventure too!</p>
<p>Should you choose to accompany this family on the adventure and for ANY reason things don’t go so well your family isn’t going to be too receptive to whining and complaining. Make sure to set up someone who could listen to you or your emails…an adult that you trust and NOT your family. You will be with a family and thus complaining to their children would be inappropriate and complaining to them about their children would also be hard. Set up a support for yourself…before you go.</p>
<p>You’re right about that Hazmat. My Dad is a big one for saying “You’ve made your bed, now you have to sleep in it.” I’m not much of a whiner anyway, maybe because of hearing that so much. I’ve worked with this vet for over 3 years now, and have spent weekends at their cabin every summer. I know 7 weeks is a long time to spend with anyone in hotels, but I don’t see any big problems coming up. They’re like my second family.</p>
<p>Well, it sounds better and better! You seem to have addressed all of issues we’ve thought of so far 
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<p>I do like hazmat’s idea of having a safe person to vent to if need be – could be the boyfriend, but an adult is also good to have in your corner as well, just a sort of a reality check if something somes up that isn’t working right.</p>
<p>I notice from one of your earlier posts you are looking for pre-vet programs. You might want to look at Washington State University in Pullman, Wa. It’s the east side of the Cascades, so quite different culturally from Seattle, but with enough Seattle kids coming over to add a touch of cosmopolitanism. And if you decide veterinary studies aren’t your thing, you can become a winemaker!</p>
<p>Why do you have to graduate early?</p>
<p>If you were my child, here’s what I would be aiming for:</p>
<p>-you continue in school, take a minimum number of classes your second semester senior year, and graduate in June
-you are away 6-7 weeks. You will keep up with school work.
-teachers will not be thrilled to prepare your homework for 6-7 weeks in advance. But you can address that NOW by getting course work from your senior year classes and planning to do that work next March/April. Then you can fine tune your work by talking over these assignments with your teachers right before you leave.</p>
<p>If you were sick for 6-7 weeks, the school would work with you to see that you graduate in as normal a manner as possible. The second semester is perhaps 18 weeks. You are only missing a third or so, even less if your school has a break while you are gone. </p>
<p>Maybe the school would go along with my idea, maybe not–but that would be my target. My position would be that the school is wrong to deprive you of the entire second semester just because you have a fabulous opportunity for a third of that semester. And, why should you miss 18 weeks of school, and the good things that your Mom has in mind, when maybe you only have to miss 5 or 6 or 7?</p>
<p>Another idea would be to go late or come home early, so that you were in Australia for let’s say 4 or 5 weeks rather than 6 or 7. Still a terrific experience, and one that IMO could hardly be said to require you to miss an entire semester of high school.</p>
<p>I hear the internet is even in Australia!
I don’t think that if your school is willing to work with you, it should be a problem keeping up with school
I don’t know what your states requirements are for graduation- but our state only requires 20 credits-
This would enable a student to actually graduate early senior year-- would agree that taking a course or two in the summer is a good idea to make this happen
Your parents should be thrilled that you are looking beyond your high school life to moving onto your “real” life</p>
<p>Hope you get it all worked out. Sounds like a great opportunity, esp. since you are considering vet school. Best of luck.</p>
<p>Frankly it sounds too good to pass up. Sure, prom and senior day are special, but every kid in your class gets to do those. How many get to travel to another continent? </p>
<p>I disagree with your mom’s prediction that you will have “many chances” to go to Australia & New Zealand in the future–the distance and travel time make it prohibitive for many people in the States to enjoy such a trip, despite the fact that it’s supposed to be such a wonderful place to go.</p>
<p>You can see that I am far from a computer whiz–:)–emeraldkity4 is surely right, your buddies can send you the homework online while you are gone.</p>
<p>But I would still recommend preparing ahead of time, and discussing everything beforehand with your teachers.</p>
<p>I’ll be the contrarian voice here. If you’re going to go, I think the original plan of doing enough work over the summer to graduate early would be better. You’d have much more time to enjoy the trip and be more flexible about what you can and cannot do if you don’t have 5-10 hours of schoolwork per week hanging over you.</p>
<p>We had an exchange student from Japan for two weeks one August. It’s school time for them there, but not here. So he had homework that he did most evenings :(</p>
<p>I appreciate Moominmama’s real-life perspective, though personally I would still stick with June graduation. The fact of homework was why I proposed just a minimum number of courses for your last semester. </p>
<p>On the other hand, if you were my child and still planned to graduate early, I would expect specific plans for what you propose to do in January, February, May and June. After all, you appear to be proposing 12 weeks or so of neither school nor travel. I would want and expect plans in place to use that time in a productive and educational manner.</p>
<p>Go for it. What a chance!</p>
<p>(But then, I’m the one who let my son drop out of HS entirely—to go to college. But he has no HS diploma.)</p>
<p>look out the High School Police will be coming for you. USA high school is a year too long at most schools.</p>
<p>Wow! A plan B!! When I approached the GC about this, her only suggestion was to graduate early. I don’t know if that’s the only option or not. I’d have no problem at all registering for a light semester and taking time off for the trip. If I put my mind to it I’m sure I could get the work done ahead of time. I’ll have to talk to her tomorrow about it. As for leaving early from Australia, I hadn’t even considered that either. And if the school calendar is the same next year as this year, there would be a week’s Spring Break included in my trip time. If the school would work it out that would be awesome!!<br>
As for the other 12 weeks, I was planning on working FT .
I really want to go, and if plan b works out then it’ll make it a lot easier for my parents to accept it. Thanks!</p>