What, Me Worry?
The photo is of Number One Son as he prepares to drive off for his “last first day” of public high school. He’s a member of the mighty 2007 senior class at Virgil I. Grissom High School, and he sure is exuding the confidence that flows from such a lofty station in life. Another reason he’s smiling is that he’s just glad his hair finally grew back in time for his senior portrait.
Number One and his brothers are Gen Nexters or Millennials, a generation that has been receiving a lot of attention lately in the media. For some, this generation reminds them of “The Greatest Generation” which came of age during World War II. They are trending more and more, according to experts, toward traditional values such as patriotism and respect for authority, perhaps fueled to a great degree by their eyewitnessing of the events of 9/11.
However, according to this USA Today article, this generation can also become very stressed as they try to manage the uber-expectations and demands of their parents and peers. We see a lot of this where we are in our hypercompetitive Huntsville–more this, more that, mix it all together and you have an instant success. Perhaps, but at what cost?
We’ve always tried to encourage our boys to stay busy and develop their talents but at the same time recognize the need to allow them to be children and enjoy their lives. Sometimes we’ve succeeded at this, and sometimes we’ve failed. They’re all starting to get old enough now that they let us know in no uncertain terms when “enough is enough.”
In Number One’s Case, it has involved the very mature decision on his part to give up club soccer his senior year and play rec instead, thereby recovering about 10-12 hours per week. He also pared down his list of colleges to apply to over the summer to a very manageable three (Harding, Alabama and Davidson) and has already been accepted at two of them. He’s taking several A.P. courses, but not the maximum he could. He’s using some of the extra time to enjoy his new passion of Ultimate Frisbee, hang out with friends from church and school, and generally relish the “glory days” before they’ve passed him by completely. All in all, pretty mature moves from a seventeen-year-old.
Maybe this attempt to “de-stress” accounts for that “What, Me Worry?” look in the picture. All I know is that Eyegal and I are pretty proud of him.
19 Comments
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Jeff Slater
You should be proud. He’s a good-looking boy, he’s got his head on straight, and he’s got a bright future. You and Eyegal have done a great job!
JRB
That looks like a black Jetta. Number One is a man after my own heart.
Isn’t a peculiar human circumstance that we spend so many cycles getting to the top of our world, only to experience some pretty harsh whiplash in the very next season when we are on the very bottom of a new one?
As a young man, I anguished over the horrible decision of HU v. UA. I wish him well.
DAVID u
Selfishly, I hope we get him at HU……….but I know he will be a blessing to what ever college he chooses! Have a GREAT senior year, #1.
DU
Mike the Eyeguy
Jeff–
Thanks for those words of encouragment. We fret more than we should over all three of them, and we have to constantly remind ourselves that they are ultimately in God’s hands, and have been since the day they were born.
JRB–
Close–it’s a 2000 Midnight Blue VW Passat. I constantly remind him of the puke green Ford Maverick (three speed on the column) that I drove in HS and about how good he has it. Seriously, the Passat has one of the highest crash ratings around, and that played a major role in the car decision.
Yeah, he’s loving being top man on the totem pole but realizes it’s only temporary. Like all of us, he’ll go through a few cycles from top to bottom and back again. The three colleges he chose to apply to are all very different yet were all places that he felt he could picture himself at and enjoying. He’s leaning hard to HU, but he may go through a few vacillations this year, especially around the time he goes to the Duke-Bama game in September!
DU–
It’s a little early for an “official” declaration, but he really liked HU. He had some negative stereotypes of Christian education which were blown away by his Honors Symposium experience. Hopper and crew did a very good job.
JRB
Duke and Harding have similar football programs, so I don’t expect much epiphany from that showdown.
Go ‘Dores.
Mike the Eyeguy
I hear rumors that Spurrier may eventually leave the Cocks and head back to Durham where he got his start. If true, the Devils may yet rise again!
Mark elrod
It would be a pleasure to have a classroom full of #1’s like yours at HU. Of my 14 students in Honors International Relations this semester, at least four of them are former symposium students.
Alan dropped band for his senior year but is now stressed about his AP classes cutting into the joys of senioritus.
Mike the Eyeguy
Mark–
How funny that Alan’s said that too. Last night Number One came home complaining his A.P courses were going to take up too much time (it figures, after I had bragged on his “de-stressing”). I reminded him many of his friends were taking the maximum amount of A.P. and that he had much more free time than they did.
He replied, “But Dad, they’re Asians and Russians, they can handle it.”
I then reminded him that he had just returned home from playing 2 hrs of beach volleyball at the local Y, despite the fact he had an AP Calc test the next day.
His response: “But I want to play beach volleyball everyday Dad.”
Yeah, he’s got his head on straight alright.
Nancy
What a cutie! Does he take after Eyegal or Eyeguy?
Mike the Eyeguy
Nancy–
Most definitely Eyegal!
All three of ours look very different from each other, and people are always surprised to learn they’re brothers. Number Two looks like me back in the “glory days.”
Hal
That’s a great post! I’ve been talking to my #1 (Sarah) about downsizing her activities, and possibly even transferring schools, so that she can have some time to enjoy being a teenager. She is not interested whatsoever.
I may have her read your post, although you’re just another “old guy” like me. What I need to do is get one of her friends to tell her that she works too hard.
Mike the Eyeguy
Just tell her that I’m a very cool 25-year-old hunk.
Hal
Yeah, I could show her the picture of your #1 and tell her that you look just like that. I could tell her that, but at 25 you would still be considered “old.” At age 15 anybody over 16 is “over the hill.” Remember?
By the way, what’s wrong with wanting to play beach volleyball everyday? The only thing I see wrong with that is that it would interfere with Ultimate Frisbee.
Nancy
Ultimate Frisbee is AWESOME.
Mike the Eyeguy
He says that at whatever college he ends up going to that he wants to play on the Ultimate Frisbee team.
Now if they just had scholarships in that!
hooteewho
Eyeguy…he is a cutie patootie.
I have a daughter who is a cutie too….does he like older women?
LOL
Mike the Eyeguy
Thanks Hoots. Like I told Nancy, fortunately he takes after his mother.
Older women, younger women, it makes no difference to him!
Seattlesoccermom
This may be stereotyping, but I never thought there would be a large Asian contingent in schools in your neck of the woods? Here in the tech corridor we have a huge one. I don’t think my own senior son has ever even dated anyone who was not of Asian descent. (He himself is German, French, Irish, and every part of the British Isles.) This is not a bad thing. His First True Love just scored 2330 on her SATs and has a sister who was a cheerleader at MIT. We, his parents, cheer this part of his development, since a few years ago he probably would have told you that AP was an alt-indie band. This year he’s got 3 AP classes and is high up in student government.
Who says teenage hormones are a bad thing?
Mike the Eyeguy
Remember that Huntsville is the home of the Saturn V rocket (The Marshall Space Flight Center is here) and remains a center of defense and various technology industries (we’ve been playfully called “Silicone Holler”). Ergo, Asians, Russians, Indians on down the line.
Number One loves the international flavor of his HS and counts many from various countries as his friends. However, he has several friends who do nothing but study in the hopes of gaining Ivy League acceptance and that’s just not his cup o’ tea, nor ours for that matter.
Sounds like we both have sons who have “their heads on straight.” We’re blessed.