Back to School Thoughts

Here's the weekly blog challenge on Scrapdango. "Blog about your memories of going back to school! Since it's getting to be that time for school age kids, what do you remember about this time of year? Did you like shopping for school supplies? Did you help? How did you feel about clothes shopping? Did you dread this time of year or was it exciting?"

Since I have no school-aged children, and my memories are LONG ago faded from MY back-to-school days, I would like to talk about my oldest stepson, Greg. You see HIS back to school this year is a first. He just graduated from the University of Alaska with his Master's degree! We are SO very proud of him! He has floundered for several years since graduating from college a few years ago. Couldn't quite figure out what he wanted to do with his life. Then he returned to Ketchikan, Alaska, and got a job working with troubled kids. He'd found his calling! So two years ago he decided it was time to go back to school. It meant leaving his job, moving to Juneau and being a student full-time again.

His mom had been battling cancer for several years and it seemed she had won. She'd been healthy for a long time. But suddenly, she was quite ill and it didn't take long to spread to her brain. Just before mid-terms in his final year of school they called him home. Thank God for Steve's sister-in-law who pulled her strings at Alaska Airlines and escorted him back to St. Petersburg, Florida only to hop back on a plane and go back to Ketchikan! Three months later, on April 6, Greg's mother died. It was really hard on him, but he managed to pull himself together and he returned to school.

At graduation he was the speaker for his class. And in a very short period of time he had a teaching position in an elementary school in Ketchikan. He'll be making a really good salary for a first-time teacher and we know that he'll do well. The kids love him and he loves them.

So this year, for back to school thoughts, I'll be thinking of Greg starting his new career and looking forward to hearing the wonderful stories he'll have to tell of his new adventures.