2011-12: Ben

Ben took two huge leaps this year.

The first, and biggest, was his sole decision to leave the giant public high school three minutes from our house and attend a small charter high school seven miles away. I must admit that I wasn't 100% behind this idea in the beginning. Our high school is ranked nationally in a few areas and is one of the best in the state. None of these things mattered to Ben when making his decision. He thought about it for a few months last year, and after praying a out it, he decided the best place for him would be Heritage Academy.

We supported him in his decision, but I told him that he would be responsible for getting himself to school every day. He found a nice older road bike on Craigslist, and he rode to school every day. Some days he would ride to a friend's house and hitch a ride halfway, but I only took him to school less than five times all year--including football season, when he had to take full pads to practice (bungee corded to the back--it was kinda funny). Those twice-daily bike trips built a strength of character that he would have missed this year.

He made fantastic friends, won the state championships in football, and made the acappella choir for next year--all things he would have missed out on if he'd listened to me.  I'm so glad he didn't listen to me--this time.

The second leap was his complete immersion in rugby.  He loved it, every bit of it--from the road rash and pulled muscles to the chest-pounding trash talk and leg-snapping tackles (a teammate of his--yeah, it was gross).

The culmination of his rugby year was traveling with his team, as AZ state U19 champions, to nationals.  Although their team didn't do as well as they'd hoped and Ben played even less, he did actually carry the ball and play at the national level.  That was a huge achievement.  And he's already planning on next season.

What I will always remember about tenth grade and Ben will be his first date.  I was taking him to a friend's party when he got a text, read it, then started laughing.  He told me that a girl he knew had a really cute friend who hadn't been asked to her prom.  Would he take her?  Oh, and it was the NEXT NIGHT!  He hadn't been on a date yet, and was not going to his own prom because of rugby nationals, so he said, why not?

Ben's first date was a blind date to someone else's prom with less than 24 hours notice.  I scrambled, pulled out Tucker's choir tux which fit well enough, called the florist (who thought he was amazing to take a girl he didn't know to her prom and arranged the most beautiful corsage with four hours' notice), and watched my second son as he entered the world of women.

And what did she look like?  She's in the black and white.

 I know.  The pictures are poor-quality teenager cell phone shots.  But it was the best I could manage when I didn't even know the girl's last name until Ben got home that night.

Worth $50 at Outback?  I think so.

Ben grew up a lot this year--especially when it came to responsibility for his grades.  Hopefully the lessons he learned the last four weeks of school will stick with him through the last two years of high school. 

Two more years I get to enjoy full-time mothering of this guy.  Love him.

Linking up to B with Jenny Matlock.