Congratulations, @confusedaboutFA ! Hope it’s a wonderful celebration.
Thanks everyone!!! I’m the only person in my grade going to the college I will be attending, so I’d prefer to keep it to myself, but trust me, it’s a wonderful place 
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Officially a HS grad as of a few days ago!!! Thanks everyone for being so helpful over the past few years
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Congratulations on a fine achievement, @confusedaboutFA!!! 
Don’t be a stranger here.
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Congrats @confusedaboutFA !! I know that you will continue to do incredible things in college. Thank you for all of your input here on CC, as having a student perspective is so invaluable. And thank you for keeping an eye out for Kiddo1. I hope you will continue to contribute to BS conversations when you can, and check in to let us know how college life is treating you! Enjoy a very well deserved summer break (though I suspect you’ve left little room to sit back and do nothing!!).
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Congratulations, @confusedaboutFA ! Wishing you much happiness and fulfillment in the next part of your journey. Thanks so much for all you have contributed here. Hoping you won’t be a complete stranger.
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Just made my last school lunch EVER since kid #3 is heading off to BS in the fall. Bittersweet for sure. On the bright side, my older two are both home as of last night. Looking forward to enjoying a full house for a few months before we become empty nesters.
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Our son earned his captain rank last month and is less than three weeks from his wedding. He’s finishing up his master’s at Georgia Tech, is rated number one in his battalion, and has been assigned to an elite unit with Cyber Joint Forces attached to the Pentagon. They are selling the GA house and moving to Ft. Meade, MD in August. So much excitement on their young plates. Once again, well done, son; good job, ChoatieCPT.
Dropping off our 14-year-old at Choate seems so long ago, but it’s been just as much a ride watching him navigate college and mature into the fine adult he’s become. I wish more BS parents (and student posters) would return to share this arc so those who are just embarking could see just how well the BS experience prepares their children to consume their college educations and launch confidently into adulthood. (Thanks for hanging around, @skieurope. Thanks for popping in when summoned @SevenDad.)
In addition to a strong HS education, BS gave our son many exposures he wouldn’t have had at home, not the least of which was enabling a no-sport kid to become a varsity athlete which enabled him to successfully compete for a service academy appointment. During his Choate years, we watched our film kid reconsider his future and his place in the world. BS took him outside of himself and instilled a deep understanding of the weight of the privilege he’d been given. Our jaws dropped when he told us he’d be applying to service academies instead of film schools, but perhaps we shouldn’t have been so surprised. His world view was changing in that immersive environment in ways we couldn’t see from home. We didn’t understand his choices at first but, with the distance we have now, we are so glad he had the courage to forge his own path against the “advice” of his parents. Though he’d always been an independent kid, we know that BS guided that independence and confirmed his agency such that he could choose with confidence a path we could never have seen for him.
So, a lot of rambling this overcast morning in the cabin as I sip my coffee and marvel at how our son’s life is unfolding. I never can consider who he is today without being grateful for everything he got from his BS experience, and I want all those who are just starting this journey to understand how deeply BS will transform their children and know that it’s OK to take your hand off the wheel and let that change happen, whatever it looks like, however it frightens you.
Best of luck to every one of you!
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I LOVE this!!! Nothing better than seeing our young adults thrive! Congratulations and thank you for sharing and starting my day with such a wonderful update!
Love the update @ChoatieMom! The arc of parenthood is long, and it amazes me that our kids (now young adults in their mid-20s) were 8th graders when we first met on CC.
Kudos to you for being a continued presence on the board.
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Thanks, @SevenDad, you too. You’ve been very transparent with your girls’ BS journeys to the wonderful outcomes they’re enjoying, and a wedding in there as well. Who knows, maybe one day we’ll meet up again on the grandparents thread. (Heaven forbid!)
My 8th grader, who listed drama, 2d art, and 3d art on her course request form last year and got placed into choir this year, not only gave it the “old college try”, but also scored a place in the spring musical and just tried out for a solo to be sung at the 8th grade moving on ceremony. Proud of her for trying something new and working hard at it. Cross your fingers for her - she should find out tomorrow if she got it.
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Thanks for sharing that, @RoonilWazlib99. Your daughter’s attitude in the face of the unexpected is admirable. If she faces all of the curves BS may throw her with such resilience, she will do very well. Fingers crossed for her!
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She got it!
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Woohoo! Really, the willingness to take those risks is everything in life. This is a great trait to be taking to BS with her next year!
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Don’t know if anyone else loves Nintendo games, but I do! We own a Wii, two Switches, 3 DSs, a Gameboy Advance, and two 3DS XLs. And now, thanks to a fun retro game store in a mall here, I found a new-in-box Nintendo 64! With my favorite game, Donkey Kong 64! And my husband’s favorites: MarioKart 64, GoldenEye, and Super Mario 64. Cannot wait to play this weekend!
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Sounds like a blast! I worked with someone who made their basement an arcade of all these games as well as some other amusements (pinball, fusbal). Super fun spot for all generations!
We have a pool table and will be adding an arcade cabinet with an emulator to that room. My mom has a pinball machine from the 1960s, too. 
Nintendo fan here! I wish we had all of my old consoles, but we only have the Switch. We bought the newest Zelda game last month. What an amazing experience. It is a movie and scavenger/treasure hunt all wrapped in one. Hundreds of clever puzzles that require true thinking and imagination.
There was a New York Times article when the game came out that talked about its joy of discovery and how these open world games (where you control the character and therefore the approximate order and outcome of the story) can produce real world frustration or elation. I agree - it is just a different feeling/experience than watching scripted movies or TV shows (and I love movies/TV too).
So if you are like me and interested in a long term puzzle/project, give it a look. It will keep me busy for at least a year in small bites as I explore every corner of the game.
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Oh, we preordered Tears of the Kingdom! Big Zelda and other open world games fans here. It is actually my rising 9th grade boarding school kid that plays Zelda the most. We (the parents) really like the Elder Scrolls games (Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, etc) which are also open world.
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