Adam Update

At Adam's camp staff meeting in February he was voted president of the camp Venture crew for the summer.  Pretty awesome!  He loved the Venturing activities they had the first year he worked there, but last year with a brand new camp director leading camp, the Venture crew wasn't a big focus.  Sounds like they are really trying to revive it this year.  During the camp staff meeting today he talked about some of the awards they can earn.

Jamie mentioned tonight that Adam will work there this summer and next summer, and he'll be on his mission for the one after that.  CRAZY!

I stole a couple pictures of him at our NYLT staff meeting while he was leading a discussion to decide the staff vision for the course.  The final winning statement was SMARTIES - Scouts May Achieve Respect Together In Every Situation.  They were eating smarties during the meeting, and it was built off the idea that everyone needs to do their part and prepare their best so we can put on an incredible course.

We had a bit of an educational surprise recently.  Adam and I had been looking at and talking about options for next year to keep moving him forward.  The week before then I had heard some homeschooling moms talk about a new program through BYU-Idaho offering concurrent enrollment, so I looked into that and a few other options and told him he needed to decide SOON so we could act as needed for whatever option he chose.  He decided on the BYU-Idaho option, but part of the application process involves taking the ACT test, and the next opportunity for that is April 13 - yikes!  I hadn't been planning on that until next year, so now we're working on preparations for that.  Thank goodness we've been practicing the English portion as part of the writing class I teach.

That's not to mentioned all the regular class work and his self-directed study, but on top of everything, he's teaching a backpacking class with a friend for youth in our homeschool group to help them feel more prepared for their backpacking trip next month.  And he's writing a book.  I get to hear bits and pieces once a month on our free writing week of the writing class, and I am always impressed.  Page-wise, I think he's in the 70 or 80 pages range - incredible!

The thing farthest out of his comfort zone right now is that he's got a solo for choir.  It's a big stretch for him - it would be a big stretch for me! - but he'll be great.

It's exciting to see my oldest growing up into such a great young man.  I thought my youth leadership experiences were great, but compared to what he's had, mine were nothing.  I still see those as the foundation for who I am today, so with Adam's as his foundation, I'm excited to see the places that will take him.

P.S.  One more funny I've forgotten to add about Adam recently.  He's been driving a lot and taking driver's ed online.  For a long time I couldn't talk him into going on the freeway, but I finally told him he was driving us to a meeting this certain Saturday morning (when traffic wouldn't be very bad), and he was taking the freeway.  He turned on his iPod as we pulled out of the driveway, and the song "Man of Constant Sorrows" started playing.  We had a good chuckle over that one.