Advanced Procrastinators

I'd like to take a moment to snap out of my self-induced September sadness state to do some brief bragging, about my kids, naturally.

Congrats to my son who received in the mail this weekend a College Board letter and certificate announcing he is an AP Scholar With Honors recipient. When I showed his sister and told her he just raised the bar again her response was, "Good for him, but when he gets an award for taking first place in the state for something, anything, then we'll talk." Boy, she's really riding that State Champion Prepared Speech thing to death isn't she?

Both kids agreed on one thing...what AP means. To them it's not Advanced Placement but Advanced Procrastinator, a skill they both seem to have perfected. For instance, just the other day as my son was walking out of the house to attend one of his college honor classes he asked me what my definition of political correctness was. After I responded I asked him why he wanted to know and he responded, "I need to get three responses for class this morning. I just need two more." During the spare 15:00 before class he scribbled some notes, and if you saw his handwriting you would know what I mean by scribble. Once he got into class he "discovered" or more likely "remembered" he had to give an oral presentation on his findings. He was the first one called. He proudly reported to me he got an A and the teacher even remarked how much effort he must have put into his "research" (Ha!) and what a good public speaker he is. Guess talking into his headphone as team leader while playing Halo on X-Box has really made a difference in his shyness factor.



My daughter told him she could top that, I just read "The Great Gatsby" (yawn) in one night, made notations as required, and also gave a presentation in front of the class." Grade unknown. She did say she hadn't intentionally waited until day three to do the assignment; she was just overwhelmed with other school homework and activities. One of those activities was joining the Drama Club and auditioning by singing and memorizing a 1:00 comedic monologue she found on the Internet the night before. She tried out for a part in "Peter Pan, the Musical." Congrats to her for snagging Lost Boy # 1. Apparently there's only two boys in the Drama Club and both are tall.



She's very excited but made me promise that I will sit in the back of the auditorium where she won't be able to see me. You see I have this quirk where I can't keep a straight face in the most solemn/important situations. I can't stop myself from bursting out laughing at the most inappropriate times -- at funerals, weddings, concerts, etc. The last time the girl was on stage was when she was a freshman in choir. She had a solo. I was sitting in the third row. As she started to sing she looked directly at me. I tried to stop myself from laughing, and I didn't out loud, but she could see my shoulders going up and down and my hand covering my mouth. One look at me and she burst out laughing. She did recover but I ruined her solo. She will never let me live that down.

Besides being an Advanced Procrastinator, unlike my son who is "forced" to do community service to remain in the Honors Society (that's a post for another day), my daughter happens to be very community minded. She doesn't like to be "forced" to volunteer either; she prefers to take on projects on her own. Her most recent endeavor -- she's signed up to tutor kindergarten students conversational Spanish once a week for 45:00 at 7:30 in the morning. She's hoping her Web Design teacher will let her come in late so she could do this. The Web Design class is almost an hour and half long, (way too long according to her and also ridiculous since her Mass Communications course, the one she's primarily going to school for, is only 45:00, but that's a post for another day.) This class she "had" to take as well only because she's going to Burton. She feels she's very proficient in it already since the teacher keeps asking her "how did you do that?" whenever she turns in a project. Anyway, although she's in her 4th year of Spanish I didn't know she could speak it well enough to "tutor", although she does order for me in Spanish at the Mexican restaurant, but she said she thinks she does. Apparently Roanoke County wants the kids introduced to Spanish at the elementary level. Many teachers don't know it, and why should they if they're not teaching it, and have asked the high schools to help. (That's a post for another day too!) Anyway the girl will be happy to help if she gets the green-light.

So there you go, just a couple of AP student tales -- students using their advanced procrastination skills. Now excuse me while I slither back to my regularly scheduled September sadness.