I posted this in another thread, but I realize that this makes me very proud, and really belongs in this thread.
We just visited our older son in SF and it occurred to me that despite whatever things that I think I’ve screwed up as a parent, I must have done a good job. Neither of our sons have a sense of entitlement, nor resentment against other people for anything that goes wrong in their lives. Self determination, personal responsibility, no blaming women, non-white people, immigrants, wokeness, whatever, for any issues in their lives.
It strikes me that no matter our faults, we managed to produce children that are empowered. They are not losers who whine and blame everybody else. Honestly, I can’t think of anything they could do that would make me prouder.
My son has more intellectual curiosity than anyone I’ve ever known. I’m helping him pack for a move and just came across one of his old books, St. Augustine’s City of God, one of the great works of Christianity.
This book was unrelated to any of his courses. I clearly remember it on his bedside table his senior year of high school, and he completed it in his “spare time”, all 1091 pages of it, while taking 7 AP classes and traveling on the national competitive fencing circuit.
His first choice college doesn’t admit by major but asks the applicant’s areas of interest. His stated interests were physics and philosophy, based on his belief that understanding those is the key to understanding our existence.
Our son is visiting. We had dinner as a family on Wednesday…but then, DS and DD spent Thursday evening together at DDs house! So nice to see them make these plans, and enjoy each other as young adults!
Now I’ll brag about some things that my daughter and son both achieved.
They each earned both the National AP Scholar and State AP Scholar Awards.
The National award goes to those who hit a certain threshold of high AP scores. The State award is more rarified, going to only 100 students each year, the top female and top male AP achiever in every state.
That is brag-worthy by any measure, and they both did it while competing at a high athletic level, and both went on to being captain of their NCAA college teams.
S25 finds out about first admit or denial on Friday. I’m already gushing because I know he is going to handle it beautifully, whatever happens. So proud of perspective, resilience, hard work and his character. Much to brag on with this one-
Not really sure this qualifies as a brag, but yesterday, for the first time, I went to a PBS member event. It was a talk by the hosts, Julia and Bridget, celebrating America’s Test Kitchen’s 25 years. They had a raffle and I won an autographed copy of the celebratory cookbook!
We just finished a weekly family zoom call with our kids who have finished college and are now working in another city.
Four years ago our son was in college and took an Election Analytics course, where all students were required to do a state-by-state prediction of the election. In 2020, he predicted 48 states correctly.
Last weekend, he said he was going to do the same thing for this election, just for fun. Tonight he reported he picked 49 states correctly, being wrong only on Nevada.
ETA: I want to clarify that I love country music and have seen several of tonight’s performers and nominees in person. I am just not a fan of that Shaboozey song.
