Today was Cheyenne’s last day of elementary school.  Next year it is middle school and all the drama that comes with moving through the tween to teenage years. Where is my prescription for happy pills? 

I was very proud of Cheyenne today – she has changed so much in her time in the West Fargo School District (and of note, I am a big fan of the district and particularly of all the school personnel at Westside Elementary – we will miss those folks). 

In her time at Westside, Cheyenne became braver and more outspoken and her brain power expanded exponentially. Today she was awarded the gold level presidential academic award which means she places, based on grades and test scores, in the top 15% of fifth graders in the nation.  It wasn’t news to me that she was smart, but now with a letter from President Obama that officially says she is smart – a letter that no one else in the family has – I think I will be hardpressed to convince her that I know anything at all (and if you believe for a minute that having two doctorate level degrees counts for anything in this house – think again) . 

So here we go into the summer with a middle-schooler who knows it all – yippee!  There is one thing though – she spends the bulk of the summer with her dad (who likewise does not have a letter from the President saying he is smarter than the average fifth grader) so hopefully all those newly blessed smarts can be used to tell her dad all the things he does not know all summer.  I like the thought of that. 🙂

Maybe by summer’s end I will be able to acquire my own letter from the President…at least with that I have the hope of having some standing in conversations with my middle-schooler.

Day three hundred and twenty-six of the new forty – obla di obla da

Ms. C