Relief

My oldest daughter completed her last day of high school today. Graduation is this Saturday. I know a lot of parents out there who are feeling anxiety over the fact that their babies are graduating high school. I, for one, don't really share that sentiment.

You see, my kid is bright, but she's not that motivated. Maybe that's the wrong way to phrase it... because she's willing to work on something if she is interested, or if she sees a payoff. But if something fails to capture her imagination, or if she's not really interested, then she's not prepared to put much effort into it. As a result, her grades in math and science tended to really suck. I can't remember a single semester where she didn't bring home at least one D.

My kid and I really butted heads over her grades. I tried yelling, grounding, tutoring... nothing worked. Eventually I resigned myself to the fact that my kid was going to have less-than-stellar high school grades... and the possibility that she might even have to stay in school for an extra semester.

But it looks like she's actually made it. I wish that she could have done better, but I'm happy for her... and I'm relieved.