We moved Kyle into the dorm at Sac State (California State Univ-Sacramento) yesterday (happy dances for everyone!) and yes, I am taking all the credit for this monumental occasion. And I don’t even care how that sounds.
I have gotten a lot of things accomplished these last 8 months, but nothing took more of my psychic energy than Kyle. The stress that kid put me through caused full-on panic attacks, more sleep-less nights than I can count, and it has taken quite a toll on me mentally and physically.
There were several times earlier this year that I tried to write a post about all the shit going on, but I was unable to get past the second sentence. There was just too much and I wasn’t ready to share it on this or any other social media platform. I still don’t feel like suffering the carpel-tunnel that I would inevitably get trying to write about “all the things”. But let me tell you the story of Kyle. Kyle, whose graduation ceremony was on a Thursday night and we didn’t know if he would even graduate until Monday afternoon of that week!
Let’s let that sink in. The child almost did not graduate.
Because of his math class. Where he never turned in any of his homework. Classic (and stupid) story of a smart boy who gets A’s on all his tests, F’s on the all the homework assignments, and then gets a C in all his classes. Go ahead, bang you head on your desk. Why do you think I have so many damn headaches?!
So the second half of May, after somehow surviving my semester from hell, was the stressed out nag-a-thon to get Kyle to finish up and turn in all the missing homework packs. “Kyle, you should start working on that math” “I will” “Kyle, you only have two weeks, get on it!” “I know. I got it.” “KYLE!” “I will” and on and on until my head exploded.
But he graduated! And he was accepted to Sac State. I took a brief 5 minutes to bask in his graduation glory and then shifted focus to the college admissions to-do list. Anyone who has a kid in college knows that there are no less that five thousand and two hoops that must be jumped through before admission is finalized. Miss a dead-line and your hosed. Not sure that Kyle even knows how to use a calendar, I made sure shit got done. Took my laptop to class with me that morning the housing application window opened. FAFSA, FERPA, I did it all.
So sure, throw some credit to Kyle. He is smart, got good SAT and ACT test scores, and is where he should be. And Chris certainly deserves mad props too. But today I’m gonna stand here and yell “ME!” because I worked my ass off this year. And dropping this kid at the dorm was a big fucking deal!
My work here is done. Kick ass at college Kyle!
