DuBose: High school will really fly right by
It’s registration time for high school freshman-to-be, apparently. Really? But didn’t we just take down our tree? And isn’t August, when Noah begins his high school career, a long, long way off?
Apparently not.
If I wasn’t already excited about my son’s imminent entrance into high school, hearing the Batavia High School drum line perform at orientation Tuesday night did a lot to get me in the mood. In fact, its dynamic drumming gave me chills and made me wish I was the one registering for the class of 2016. Geez Louise, since when did high school become so cool?
Cool, maybe, but high school – and the somewhat overwhelming process of planning and preparing for four years of a life – are not mere walks in the park. While scanning course offerings in the registration handbook and pondering prerequisites, honors courses and future advanced placement possibilities, Noah conjured a class he’d most like to take.
“Is there AP lunch?” he quipped. Then he spotted “Rock and Roll Methods” in the handbook.
“Wow, that’s an elective?” He was impressed. High school was looking better already. Cool, indeed.
When Dave Andrews, the assistant principal and athletic director, took his turn at the mic and mentioned that the four years of high school would pass quickly, my eyes welled up with surprised tears. It seems like just yesterday when my little Noah proudly read “Ten Apples up on Top” by Dr. Suess to me for the first time. Where has the time gone? Since then he has graduated from board books and yo-yo’s to 600-page tomes and text messages, so perhaps he is ready for all that high school has to offer.
As he ran to catch the bus Thursday morning I got on the school’s website to register him for classes. I found “PowerSchool,” the portal for school registration, but couldn’t find the dang “course request pop-up window” that was supposed to, well, pop-up. After searching in vain for 20 minutes – and then letting the cat bat around at the keyboard for a while (perhaps he would have better luck?), I finally caved and called the school.
“The window doesn’t open ’til tomorrow,” the nice lady informed me.
Duh. Really, I’m in no hurry for high school to begin.
Before we headed over to orientation Tuesday evening, Noah and I made a mad dash to the outlets. Seems he grew two inches overnight and suddenly needed new jeans. I’m still taller, by a mere inch, but that inch that keeps my son near isn’t long for this world. We also discovered that his hands, which he no longer allows me to hold, are now larger than mine. And his feet? They’re now a whole size larger (new sneakers were on the list, too). He no longer fits into my shoes, and nor can I walk in his. But something tells me he’ll be walking tall, whether or not I’m ready for him to hear – and be moved by – a new drum beat this fall.
• Jennifer DuBose is a contributor for the Kane County Chronicle. She lives in Batavia with her husband, Todd, and their two children, Noah and Holly. She can be reached at jenniferdubose@msn.com.
