<p>Mathmom: That’s one smart son you have!</p>
<p>Ah, well no. Your sons are math whizzes, and you guys know how much I respect that.</p>
<p>My S won the English prize for the entire school at graduation and had three of his poems published while in high school.</p>
<p>He’s a phenomenal poet.</p>
<p>For one of his poems they had to use part/whole distinctions. (Prof poet, poet workshop.) I believe this was eighth grade.</p>
<p>Ex: The world is a mosaic and we are all tiles.</p>
<p>S? Here’s his: The world is a guillotine and we are all executioners.</p>
<p>The poem ended up about being body count in Iraq.</p>
<p>So, although composing music is is thing, S writes some awesome poems. Oh, another template: i am a ---------- boy who ---------------s. S wrote: I am a compassionate boy who feels the rhythm of life.</p>
<p>This poem has other remarkable parts.</p>
<p>DS does not volunteer to write poetry. He doesn’t spend time doing it, but assignments don’t trouble him and he writes amazing stuff.</p>
<p>Of course, he does have a mom who’s a poet!</p>
<p>I saw that 2,000th post when checking, CountingDown. Here’s a toast of the bubbly to the fun it has been getting there! And here’s to any seniors who are anxiously watching the clock tick as they come down to that final decision. If anyone is down to the wire, it probably means they can’t go wrong. Cheers to the College Class of 2012!</p>
<p>Here here! I’ll drink to that!</p>
<p>Cheers!</p>
<p>Mythmom,
No insult intended…S1 used to write poems a lot when he was younger. Did a hilarious poetic parody of a Roald Dahl story when he was in 3rd grade. I suspect he has forgotten he used to do a lot of creative writing. I go back and read it now and I see there were things he was trying to tell me. At some level, I think this is part of what attracts him to Chicago – getting to use the other side of his brain.</p>
<p>Oh, I’m not insulted. Not at all. I think it’s funny. My S has no interest in writing poems, but genes are genes. Haha.</p>
<p>I didn’t think you insulted. I just wanted to be clear here. In fact, m S would probably rather write a poem than take a math test – he gets scared on math tests.</p>
<p>Oh, CountingDown, don’t worry at all!</p>
<p>:: grabs the champagne… scratch that… the bourbon, and swigs it straight from the bottle ::</p>
<p>I have to go through poetry (which I like, BTW) with this kid for THREE MORE YEARS?!?!?!</p>
<p>:: finishes off the bourbon ::</p>
<p>:: looks for more ::</p>
<p>(For all that, S got a 98% on last quarter’s poetry project, which required he write 10 original poems [different forms] on an assigned topic.)</p>
<p>owlice: My senior son who is taking AP Eng Lit has hated the poetry sections that he has had to endure for all four years. Our school doesn’t require that you write poetry, though. He thinks that would be preferable to trying desperately to figure out the “hidden meanings” of someone else’s work.</p>
<p>My S is a history/econ/science/poli sci guy all the way. I sincerely empathize with your plight.</p>
<p>And thanks for all you did to make our party sparkle! It was delightful. ;-}</p>
<p>gladmom, I wish I’d actually been here for the party!! Good thing y’all know how to carry on without me; looks like everyone had fun, and I was sorry I missed most of it! </p>
<p>Yeah, I don’t know why this gets to be an issue with some kids. Typically, kids LOVE poetry when they are small (anyone else remember “Bones, bones, they do a big job! Without bones, you’d just be a big squishy blob!”). I used to memorize poems when I was little, just because I liked them (anyone else remember the book “Beautiful Joe,” and the little “Don’t Kill the Toads” poem in it? I still do! 
). </p>
<p>There is a national poetry recitation contest, relatively new, I think, for high schoolers that had its finals in DC just this past week. If the finals hadn’t been on a school night, I’d have been very tempted to take S to it!</p>
<p>I’m not into the hidden meanings, either, but then, I don’t go looking for them in music, either. For both, I like the sound, man, the sound! The rhythms, the tones, the colors, and the passion, the feelings, conveyed or evoked by the sound and rhythms and tones and colors. Yeah, it’s the music!</p>
<p>But S doesn’t have to like poetry; he still has to do the homework, though!</p>
<p>(The “there are tasks in life that must be done whether you enjoy the tasks or not” lesson is one he is resisting, actively resisting, resisting with every fiber of his being and a lot of banging around and yelling, learning. Not one of my favorite tasks, teaching him this!!!)</p>
<p>Ahh, my son is also right-brained like mythmom’s. Math scares him, but will whip out any form of creative writing and actually enjoy it. And he thinks AP English Lit is the best.</p>
<p>I’m off to a videotaping today - sadly, not with Spielberg but to do a training film.</p>
<p>My son freezes on most creative writing assignments. He doesn’t mind reading the poetry, he just hates writing poems. The only creative writing assignment I saw him enjoy was one to write a satire. (They’d been reading Catch 22.) He wrote one about the overuse of patents.</p>
<p>mathmom</p>
<p>I read that as “the overuse of parents”. Haha.</p>
<p>bethie: That would be a funny satire!</p>
<p>My son writes poetry for fun. Good thing we’re not all alike!</p>
<p>Bringing up the rear in a dramatic fashion, we have a decision. Yale it is! </p>
<p>Boy, that turned out to be difficult, much to our surprise. We had visited Harvard with S last year, and he didn’t adore it. Still, when Harvard sends you an acceptance letter, you consider it seriously. He expected to be able to go to H’s admitted students program last week and rule it out relatively easily. Not so. He liked it very, very much. For all the trash talk, I do think H and Y are much, much more similar than they are different. Both extraordinary choices. But you can only go to one college, and ultimately, after a week of painstaking list-compiling, his gut gave him the right answer.</p>
<p>wjb: Oh dear! This is the decision most CC kids would like to have! Just shows nothing is easy.</p>
<p>This is a wonderful coda to Vigil. Though someone is still waiting for revised FA results and still undecided. We wait with you.</p>
<p>And now the wait list wait.</p>
<p>In response to all the raucous partying and naughty CARBS from yesterday, today in the vigil lounge we’re serving: black coffee, non-fat milk, hard boiled eggs, and watery tea.</p>
<p>Just kidding. The omelet station is being set up, even as we speak.</p>
<p>gladmom,
S2 is also a history/poli sci/science guy. Likes his English classes, just not the poetry. This kiddo is my short-story writer. Did some amazing stuff in middle school, and hasn’t had time recently, as IB is all-consuming. If his school cancels one of his electives next year, maybe he can pick up a creative writing course.</p>
<p>mythmom - I was dismayed with the black coffee, non-fat milk, etc. until I saw the omelet station is up and about.</p>
<p>wjb - What a lovely problem to have, but still a problem. Congratulations on your S’ choice. </p>
<p>Yes, waitlist vigil member here. I so wish S would let go of the waitlist. I was feeling encouraged since he has not been talking about the waitlist college, but he mentioned last night that it was now May 1 and the next wait begins. Ugh. This kid has too much fortitude.</p>
<p>wjb said:
</p>
<p>S felt the same way about MIT. That tube came in the mail and it was much harder to ignore than he imagined it would be. He had visited several times for various events over the past couple of years, but he made a trip just before CPW to really get a feel for living there. </p>
<p>I think when one puts a lot of thought into crafting a list, it’s not surprising when it comes down to some really agonizing choices at the end. I remember Bethievt’s son going 'til the end last year because he liked so many of his schools, and I kind of held on to that through the vigil. S1 had compelling reasons for every school on his list, both personally and academically. He had no bad choices – just very tough ones.</p>
<p>Congrats to your S, wjb!! Yale – that’s great!!</p>
<p>mountains, we’ll see you through this next vigil, AND we come equipped with scones, muffins, cheese, fruit, and chocolate platters! :)</p>