It’s A Wonder

I’m outside of COVID confines for the first time in what feels like an eternity but more closely represents a year and a half off.  I am attending a work conference close to Austin at a new venue I’m not entirely sold on – it’s plenty nice but overmuch by my estimates.  It feels like you are eating a 2-pound burger just to say a 1/4-pound was wimpy.  And I just got an automated text from the front desk that they were sad to see me go but I was invited to use the waterpark until close!

Last night I stayed up a bit to catch up on work matters and the background infomercial was GetBreeze.com. If you hurry, like in the next 20 minutes, you can own this personal “most advanced airbrush tanning system” and be well on your way to Cabo, or Cancun, or Costa Rica as a perfectly tanned, fooling no one, vacationer.

As full confession, I fell for the GetBreeze shtick – not tanning per se but on the hurry up to achieve the most advanced.  I’ve decided I need to write a book for parents for what not to do in planning for your kid’s college – I feel like I’ve missed every step up to full panic mode which is where I find myself these days.  It’s a wonder…

Embroiled in all this drama my youngest turned 16. I was actually in town for the event but what my wife and I planned for the wow factor occurred while I was college searching with my oldest. I pulled the once in a friendship’s lifetime card and asked a “cool” friend of ours to accompany my Sweet 16 (I wrote about him in my last blog – not the friend, he’s really not THAT cool – my son) to a concert I could not attend. It was my son’s first ever concert and our family friend was the best family friend you could ever have asked for in such an event. Even sweeter was the buddy my kiddo surprisingly ran into…

It was an event that just kind of became organic, from my duo arriving early enough and finding friends to the bitter late which the show afforded.  On most days, I want to be the quasi-cool dad but for this evening, I fully signed over the power of attorney.

As school folks, how many of those lifelines are we pitched?    It’s a wonder sometimes why we insist on competing with ourselves.  I’ve spent the better part of 3 days surrounded by K-12 professionals at various stages of their careers after a long pandemic pause for such events.  I thought the vibe would be different but it felt remarkably familiar.  It’s a wonder but maybe it’s worth wondering.  I had a principal reach out to me yesterday and I stepped away from the event to take the call.  We talked for a bit and then caught up on our own kids.  By the end of the call I was sharing with her my college cost calculator because she’s got two years before the same exercise.  I told her I’m going to write that book I mentioned above on the whole experience one day – I’ll probably have to self-publish 🙂 – but it’s a wonder who might benefit from a little benevolence.