Day 26 of 1000
We made a pretty big break-through in our thousand day plan yesterday. For the kids that plan entails, not only getting an undergraduate degree in something hard, but doing other stuff that will help them get a job in something they love when they are out of school. The kids both know what they want to do. I believe that is a gift; I certainly did not know what I wanted to do when I was their age. Christian has had some amazing opportunities along that should help lead him where he wants to go–acceptance into college at age 14, an amazing engineering internship, volunteer research at the NCSU BAE lab among other things.
Kelly, even though she knows what she wants to do and has pushed hard to get there, has really not had as many breakthrough opportunities. I have not known what to tell her, so when she gets a little discouraged, I tell her to keep pushing and things will happen. I tell them that at the end of every semester when there is not enough time for all the tests, reports, speeches, and homework. Just keep pushing to the end and it will end well. All of us have to do that. Four people pushing is better than one.
Kelly has kept pushing and we have had our little breakthroughs–work as a reporter on the school paper, an opportunity to write some articles for her hometown paper, her comic strip. We have hope now that something bigger is happening. She sent in a resume on Thursday and had a great interview on Friday for an internship that will take place either through this semester or fall semester if we can get all the paperwork and approvals worked out at the school. If we keep working hard to make it work, more opportunities will present themselves. I will talk more about this great opportunity when I can.
It surely feels like we are returning to a more normal life. Kelly, Christian, and I sit here at the NCSU Hill Library (need I rave anymore about what a great place it is to sit, drink coffee, work, and watch people on a Saturday morning), the kids hard at work on research for papers they have to write while I work on a side machine vision programming project for which I hope to receive payment in the form of a computer for Christian. Lorena is off at CostCo, buying food for the week. This kind of work is really a joy to me. Actually, it is a joy to all of us. Writing code to the sound of Jerry Garcia singing Ripple on Pandora. Good stuff.
Garcia/Grisman – Ripple – Warfield Theater – 12/08/91
