50 Posts

This is my 50th post on this blog. Cool.

Went to a Twins game last night and had a swell time with my brother and son. In July, my brother moves to Des Moines to start med school. He's 29 years old and he's had such a journey in life. One of his co-workers (he works at Park Nicollet) is a mother to a teen boy who is a senior in high school. Her son is one credit shy of graduating and is sabotaging his diploma. The kid has even been accepted to 4 colleges. Matt, my brother, found it interesting that she would ask him for advice and offered instead our mother's perspective. See, Matt also blew his graduation off. He had been accepted to colleges and whatnot, but the final trimester of his senior year he stopped waking up to go to his morning classes and lost those credits. It took him nearly two years to get those credits back. He was working full-time roofing for his friend's Dad's company and he just kept procrastinating. Finally, tired of roofing in both extreme heat and cold, and worn out by now lame partying, he finished his high school diploma and went back to school. 3 years ago he graduated from the U with a degree in Chemical Engineering. For the past year and a half he's been working on a Masters in Public Health. Now, he's suspended that degree and is going to med school. All this, from a kid who was voted the biggest partier in his senior class. All this, from a kid who fell off a hotel balcony in Mexico because he was so drunk that he toppled off the railing when acting like an idiot. Heck, all this, from a kid who was sometimes so unhappy with his life that he slashed at his wrists with knives, wound up in the city detox more times than my mother or he will admit...

And now he is almost 30. Heading to be a doctor. A phenomenal uncle. A newly avid bicyclist who gave up smoking cigarettes (for, like, the 10th time). And yet, even with all the time between his 18 year old self and now, it's difficult for him to articulate for another person how he got to this point and how to help someone avoid some of the difficulty he has encountered. So, while I'm musing and reflecting, I hope that each of you knows that your journey can end well- will end well- but it doesn't mean it will be idyllic or come without a lot of work on your part. Not everyone is destined to graduate in 12 years of public education. Not everyone's foray into drugs and alcohol is a "phase" limited only to high school.

So, for today, I'd like you to write about someone that you know and care about in life (could even be you) whose life is still in process, but they perhaps have made PROGRESS.

Notes: Now that you've had a chance to look at your progress report, you have until Monday morning to complete any of the missing work- without penalty. After Monday at midnight, those assignments will be closed. Please take this opportunity to complete those assignments. Because of the flurry of things you are asked to do- both big and small- it was vital that I got your input about tasks I might have commented on, but not graded, or things not read because I got caught up in another rush of new posts. Thank you for your patience and understanding.