Crossroads

We have reached that point in life where two of our children face a crossroad.  While the transition remains almost a year away, the decisions regarding where our boys will land in the fall of 2014 must be considered now.

Zach started his senior year just a few weeks ago. I ran through his schedule at open house while Andy drove straight from the airport from a business trip to visit with Savannah's teachers.  Zach's teachers impressed me- definite answer to prayer.  The curriculum promises to meet some needs of which we are aware in Zach (including one very specific point of prayer from this mom).  In fact, I loved three of his teachers/classes so much that I left wishing I could take them.  Open house brings talk of college applications, essays, and visits.  With Zach's busy schedule, these things fall to the back burner.  Zach still needs to make some decisions, but it looks like he will pursue football in college.

Zach visited Andy's alma mater this week, and for the first time, Zach loved the university.  He loved everything about it.  Visiting with his buddy, Trevor, probably helped.  One big obstacle will keep Zach away from the only college he has loved so far.  They have no Criminal Justice program, and the one certainty Zach feels about his future is that he wants to pursue a criminal justice degree.  While he plans to visit two more schools, we are confident that only one school exists in our state where pursuing a Criminal Justice degree makes sense.  In the coming weeks, Zach will register with the NCAA Clearinghouse, and we are getting highlight tapes of his performance on the football field.  His desire to pursue the Reserves while in college so that he can graduate a commissioned officer will be on hold until we figure out the football thing.

Wyatt also faces a transition next fall, and decisions regarding middle school must be made now.  We thought we had a plan, but when we pursued it, Wyatt revealed hesitation about that plan.  I laid out the options to him, and it looks like we must return to exploring the possibilities.  I guess we will visit open houses and let Wyatt spend some days shadowing other students in different environments as we flesh this out.  We know for certain that the public school setting in our town is not the best placement for Wyatt during his middle school years, so we have eliminated that option from the search.  I am not knocking the public schools with this.  Wyatt needs a smaller environment. Unfortunately, some of the private school options may not be the best for the family, so we now must weigh Wyatt's needs and the family's needs and strive to be fair to both.

How did we arrive at these crossroads so quickly?  Zach feared the "thunder dark" (storms), and I blinked which brought me to this day when my oldest is just over a month away from his 18th birthday. My advice -don't blink.