Li’lChief will be finishing his freshman year of high school in about a month, so MrsChief and I escorted him to his NJROTC awards banquet last night over his protestations. He said he didn’t want us to go, it was nothing special, that he just wanted to hang with his friends (Read: You two embarass the Hell out of me, so stay home).
To set the record straight, Li’lChief joined the NJROTC unit at his high school with no prompting from me. He announced one night a little over a year ago that he was joining and it hit me like a bolt from the blue. He’d always had a bit of a problem with the military and authority in general so I was quite surprised – but secretively pleased – because I thought it would do him some good.
Back to last night. After passing his inspection so that he could verify that we weren’t wearing anything that would embarass him, we headed off to the banquet. We met up with his current girlfriend (Read: this week’s) and her folks and sat down to dinner.
By the time dessert was served, Li’lChief had racked up not one, but two VARSITY letters! One each for competitive Drill Team and Color Guard. Four varsity letters were awarded to freshmen and **Li’lChief ** took home two!
Among three other awards, he also earned an academic ribbon recognizing that he’d made honor roll for at least two marking periods this school year, received no grade lower than a “C” and attended all drill team and color guard practices and competitions. Only four of these ribbons were awarded this year for the high school’s ENTIRE NJROTC program – all four classes!!
And the little turd didn’t want us to attend.
It turns out the letter jacket which we’ll now need to buy for him costs 350 bucks plus paying for sewing on the letters. Though I don’t know where we’ll scrape up the dough, it’ll be the easiest $350 I’ve spent in the last year or so!
So what has your hulking, moody, little turd of a teen done to make you proud recently?
OW! One of your buttons from your shirt just hit me in the eye!
My daughter is going to Chicago with her Academic Team for a National Academic Team conference.
My son, home again after having to withdraw from school due to medical reasons, is working two jobs, saving like mad to buy a car and get back into community college.
Congrats to you and your son, sounds like he’s doing great.
I’m also excited to hear that letter jackets are still worn in high school. While I loved mine, and all of my friends had one, I was afraid that kids are “too cool” for them now. Good to hear that they’re not.
Yeah, they do that stuff just to mess with our heads. It’s nice when they decide to mess with your head in a good way. Congratulations.
My son, a somewhat surly teen sometimes, locked horns with his swim coach for the last 2 years. This year, she approached my wife and I at a meet, half way through the season to “talk”. She proceeds to tell us that he has been “a joy to work with”, a “team leader”, “an inspiration to the younger swimmers” and more. We look at each other and then both ask “you know who’s parents we are, right?” Team captain, district champs, yeah, I’m proud and more so for the words of the coach for than the ribbons and medals.
My 15 year old son spent much of the past weekend alone in his tent with a young lady of similar age…and they weren’t having sex! She was having trouble with her dad, and he listened to her cry, yell and talk, and he only occasionally tried to offer advice or fix things in any way. By the end of the weekend, she and her dad worked things out and were looking forward to a new haircut, instead of the facial piercing she’d been pushing for.
Why yes, I spent most of the same weekend listening with ears a-perked on the other side of the tent wall! I also found an astounding number of reasons to “casually” walk around to the other side and verify the tent door was open and the two of them clearly visible and in uncompromising positions.
When he was younger, he was always the King Solomon of the kid pack - the one everyone would go to for advice or arbitration. I’m glad to see he’s still serving that role AND that he didn’t take advantage of a very attractive overemotional girl (who’s had a crush on him for a number of years). Or, probably more accurately, he didn’t allow a very attractive overemotional girl to take advantage of him.
My baby (16) has a baby who will be one on the 28th. She has managed to breastfeed the entire year while attending school full-time. While I was most certainly very unhappy that she became a mother so young, I am extremely proud of her for being so good at it. And, of course, my granddaughter is incredible!
[SIZE=7]Exactly how do I put in a link for pictures, anyway?[/SIZE]
Ummmm, my daughter got an ‘attagirl’ certificate for picking up trash unprompted at school, and a sparkly pencil for a 10/10 on a spelling test. She’s seven, those things mean a lot to her, and Dad, too.
Letter jackets are a ways off, Congrats to the littlesquidturd, ChiefScott.
My son’s high school has an award for athletes named after a former athlete that became a Army 2nd Lt and died in Vietnam. It is not given every year, only when the coaches feel it is warranted. It is given for athletes that help out and go the extra mile, helping out and stuff.
My son won it two years running.
