Parents of HS Class of 2024 3.0-3.4 GPA

D24 had to work this evening. Got home from her shift and raved about how stoked she was that she was put on drive-thru the whole time, so she didn’t have to work the front counter. She feels bad for the people who are put on front counter all the time because they have to always clean the lobby. She also gushed about this older retired lady named Flo who works the front counter…the lady is like everybody’s grandma, always has a positive attitude, super friendly. D24 said that everybody loves Flo and everybody, even the customers, know her.

My MIL was over yesterday for dinner and we told her about this past week’s summer camp & how D24 has decided to NOT become an MD, but how she definitely DOES want to become a PA. MIL (who’s soon to be 77 in about a month) said, “That’s great! You know, she could become an EMT.” MIL thinks that EMTs make a lot of money. Neither D24 or I had it in us to explain to MIL that EMTs don’t make a whole lot (around here, it’s ~$19/hr, and McD’s is paying $15/hr, although I do know that D24 would find the EMT work a lot more interesting than fast food). MIL is a little out of touch with regards to wages and how things operate in the work place these days. :slight_smile: So we did the “smile and nod.”

D24 & I came up with a schedule that should have her done w/the Modern States courses by the end of the month for Calculus & French, so she can then get her CLEP vouchers from them and can sign up through our local community college to take the exams. The Modern States class for 2nd semester US History will take a little longer to finish…she’ll be done w/that by about mid-July.

D24 has an orthodontist appt this week which I need to reschedule. Hoping that she’ll get her braces off before school begins. D24 also needs her wisdom teeth taken out, but that requires the braces to come off first. D24 is worried about missing a lot of school from the wisdom teeth removal. If it can’t happen before school starts, maybe we can schedule it so it coordinates with Fall Break in early October?

D24 also said the other day that most of her friends spend part or all of their summers overseas visiting relatives in other countries. Only 1 of her BFFs is actually here in town for this summer. D26’s BFF is also out of the country all summer, spending the summer visiting relatives in Nepal.

D24 also declared again that she really loves living in AZ and wants to stay in AZ after college. DH is totally thrilled with this. :slight_smile:

Another older relative (DH’s uncle, will refer to him as UIL) thinks that D24 should still pursue med school because his BIL went to med school and got his tuition paid for by signing up for the military about 20 yr ago…oh, also because “you can make a lot of money in medicine.” Overall, that was another ‘smile and nod’ sort of conversation once I realized that explaining to UIL that D24 wants to get married and start having kids before she’s 35…and UIL (who’s going to be 81 in a couple of weeks) thinks that the US military scholarships for med school will pay $400,000 of grad school student loans (they’ll pay about $250k, but it’s competitive to get in…AND you have to be physically eligible to enlist AND you have to go to boot camp AND…a bunch of reasons why D24 doesn’t want to go that route).

Smile and nod, people. Smile and nod. :rofl:

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I don’t know how normal is it because I have not known many people who had their wisdom teeth removed. But my S23 just had all four of his wisdom teeth (3/4 fully impacted) removed on Thursday morning. He needed to rest and took pain medicine (just ibuprofen) on Thursday, but he has been totally fine since. Of course, his diet is restricted, but besides that he hasn’t been any different than normal.

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This was my S24 also. Had them done last August on a Tuesday morning. Was going out with friends by Thursday and worked a moving shift Friday. I think the key is ICE ICE ICE 24/7 and stay ahead of the pain with ibuprofen and Tylenol. He also was really good about hydrating like crazy for 48 hours before, including pineapple juice which is a natural anti-inflammatory. Glad that’s behind us though.

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OK folks, I can finally say we are in the home stretch. They are off today for Juneteenth. Then tomorrow-Friday they have finals. Two finals per day. I feel like we are the last district in the state to get out of school. The school district that I work in gets out Wednesday and I am looking forward to starting my new gig at a private school come August.

S24 has been starting to figure out summer. Looks like football is really going to be a huge time suck, making it hard to work consistently. He has summer workouts from 6:30-8:30 am M-Th from next Monday until mid August. Next weekend he has a football camp from 9-3 Sat/Sun and then another one at a local university the following week for two days. They asked him to play in a 7x7 league which has practices a couple evenings a week and games on Sunday nights. He will have a couple tournaments for that in July. He is going to try and pick up some work shifts as they are available and also will be working on his essay(s) and college applications. Football is really the one thing that he is fully committed to and happy to do anything related to it all summer. I told my husband that as much as I know he should be working, it is nice to see him passionate about something and give it 150%. He only started freshman year and that was covid so they barely practiced or played. He will def have a hard time in college not having football, but hopefully can join a club or intramural sport.

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Today is my D24’s first official day of summer vacation, and the first day she isn’t working a shift at either of her jobs in in many days. Needless to say, she is currently still snoozing away.

This was a very tough year - academically, socially and wrt her mental health. She persevered and finished strong on all fronts, I am very proud of her. Our plan is not to talk much about college until August, when we’re going to take a multi-day trip through upstate NY to look at a number of schools.

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Yes, my son had his wisdom teeth out in February when there was no soccer. He had them out Thursday and rested Friday and then back to school Monday. I agree about the pineapple juice before. My son told us about that because he heard it from his friends. It went smoothly and he recovered quickly. These young kids are resilient and bounce back quickly!!

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Your son reminds me of ours. He has been recovering from collarbone break and is a soccer goalkeeper so diving and getting tackled is out for about 3 more weeks but his collarbone is healing nicely. He will start back with high school soccer workouts in July but has been volunteering all day at a soccer summer camp. He is looking for colleges that have club soccer or intramural soccer. It is nice to see them so passionate about something.

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D24 went to lunch w/a friend today. Afterwards, she told me about this boy in her grade…we’ll call him Butthead Brad (not his real name). Butthead Brad apparently has been dating a 9th grader for a year (so all last school year). Prior to that, Butthead Brad pursued 1 of D24’s BFFs…and Butthead Brad called it off w/D24’s BFF when BFF told him, “Heck no!” to his demand that she send him nude photos of herself.

Well, Butthead Brad strikes again because he was pressuring the 9th grade girl to do the same. And he decided to do the trend of “do whatever your partner wants for a day” and demanded that the 9th grade girlfriend not only send him nude pics but also engage in “extracurricular activities of an adult nature” with him.

AND Butthead Brad allegedly demanded that the 9th grade girl not talk to other guys this whole time they’ve been dating. AND started demanding that she not talk to D24’s BFF at all…nor talk to a few other girls either.

All huge relationship red flags, of course. The 9th grade girl finally said, “Heck no!” and they are now no longer an item. D24 wishes that she could give the girl a hug. She also astutely observed, “Well, since BFF is pretty assertive and told him heck no, he probably decided to go after somebody younger than him because he was hoping she’d be naive and needy and would do whatever he wanted.”

to be honest, it was an interesting conversation because it sort of transitioned into a discussion of “Red flags to pay attention to when you’re dating somebody” and “How to listen to that little voice in your head” and “How to avoid getting into it with a toxic abusive person like that” and “Here’s what a healthy relationship looks like and here’s what an unhealthy one looks like.”

Between this and the whole “I want to get married in my 20s” thing last week…HOLY GUACAMOLE, PEOPLE! THERE’S SO MUCH ADULTING GOING ON! :slight_smile:

So awesome you got to have that very important conversation about relationships with her!!!

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@sbinaz Did the oral surgeon say her braces come off before her wisdom teeth come out? S24 had his out while his braces were on. His wisdom teeth were pressing against his molars and they wouldn’t come in all the way. Once his wisdoms were pulled he was able to finish his orthodontic treatment. He had no complications but did have them out during summer.

@coastal2024 football is a huge commitment! Glad he loves it though! I agree you probably are one of the last districts to be in school. We ended today :tada:

@DeeCee36 Good to hear D24 finished strong! What schools are you looking this summer?

@newadventuresahead S24 is a soccer for life kid although he doesn’t play competitively anymore. He is at the field with his friends playing now as we speak. I think the majority of schools have club/intramural soccer. Hope he heals quickly.

School is out for summer. S24 finalized his schedule for next year and he is taking his first AP class :tada:. He will also have an internship. He asked two teachers for recommendations and they both said yes. He is still looking for a job. Hopefully he finds something soon. He will be a camp counselor for a few sessions but he will need something more the way he is spending money with his girlfriend and friends.

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D24 got her first real paycheck yesterday. :moneybag::slightly_smiling_face: She thought that was pretty great. Making more progress on finishing the Calculus, French, and US History II materials on Modern States so she can take the CLEP exams before school starts again in Aug.

I need to pay the registration fee for choir for fall. Forgot to do that!

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Your daughter might enjoy hearing that the Golden Arches has become a cool place to work here. D24 has 3 friends working there!

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Binghamton, Syracuse, RIT and New Paltz.

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Nice to see everyone enjoying productive summers. S24 finished his year with strong semester grades - many A- which is a nice step up from the B and B+ he got in the fall. He’s doing an internship he loves and he’s shifting his intended major from sports management and business school to communications and marketing, a way better fit. He also has his two recommenders ready to go (Spanish and Physics teachers).

I hope we don’t regret this, but we are leaving him alone on the college essays until late July.

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“college talk” status update…did our 15 min thing w/D24 today. Here’s the latest:

  • D24 said Guilford College is off the list because it’s way too close to a toxic relative (like, an hour away, and the relative would likely show up on campus unannounced and demand regular visits…too much potential drama which I won’t go into…we’ll have to keep the entire state of NC off the list actually). She’s not wrong. It’s a very solid reason to keep it off the list.
  • told her to go watch some UAH videos on Youtube
  • also told her to go poke around on Austin College, Southwestern Univ, and Centre College’s websites this next week and figure out ONE question to email their admissions staff about. And then send the emails.
  • asked her if she understood why I’m making her do that. She said, “Yeah, so I get to know the schools more and it’s a way to show the school that you’re interested.”
  • had her read the 2023-2024 common app essay prompts and told her, “Pick the 1 or 2 that you dislike the least” and “Between now and mid-July, write a rough draft essay of up to 650 words for 1 of these.” She picked the prompt that talks about discussing a topic where you lose all track of time.
  • Asked her to show me her 1/2 pg free-write about last week’s summer scrubs day camp. She said, “Oh…um…I forgot.” :joy: That’s fine. Let’s do it right now, kiddo…you think out loud and I’ll just dictate. So we did that. And in about 5 min, had a whole page written out. There’s a few things in that 1-pager that she’ll be able to use for college app essays, I think.
  • reminded her that as she’s writing her common app essay rough draft, to write it in 1st person.
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Nothing says Happy First Day of summer like Strep throat :sob: S24 slept until 1PM today and woke up achy and miserable. Temp of 102. He called and made himself an appointment and just texted me that it’s strep. The only good thing is it will be better quickly rather than days of fever and viral illness. But man, what a bummy way to start summer break.

I hope he feels better soon! As a nurse you probably know, but that strep bug is really going around here in Massachusetts. Most of my family had it about six weeks ago. The doctor at the urgent care said it seems to be getting passed around a lot because a lot of people have no symptoms. :grimacing: We found out my youngest had it after almost a week of feeling under the weather when he broke out with a scarlet fever rash. We had everyone else in the house tested and four out of six of us had strep, with only a mild sore throat that we attributed to allergies and no fever for anyone.

So sorry to hear this. Strep sucks. I sure hope he feels better soon.

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Hope your S24 feels better soon!

My son headed to Colorado School of Mines and loves it - everyone is an engineer.

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