Above Normal

Tonight Mariah and I attended Freshman Orientation at the high school we are assuming she will go to. Hopefully our request to attend there despite being rezoned will be approved in the next few days. I was told by the superintendent himself that it was pretty much a given if her brother goes there, so will she. And my unspoken question is "and why do you rezone and split the feeder pattern then?" (when a good number of kids will have a sibling getting them into the school anyway). By the way, Mariah really enjoyed her shadow day. She was intrigued by the Fashion Design class they saw and that snowballed and changed everything.

After the spiel, we signed up for registration day and slipped in with a tour group. Asked a bunch of questions as we stewed over what Mariah will do for her Elective Focus aka High School Major. The problem is that she wants Art, Theater and Fashion Design and guess what? You can't do all three. You can't even take one fashion class unless it's your focus. Hate that!! Can't say it enough. There are some amazing business, media, and digital design classes that are out of reach. We pro'd and con'd our options, spent some time talking with two guidance counselors while everyone else was leaving to see what the chances were that they would do something out of the ordinary with her class line up for the next 4 years. Mariah finally decided on.....

FASHION DESIGN in the Career and Technological Education Focus. I have 2 possible 4 year plans. I hope they don't shoot us down right out of the gate. If I get our way, Mariah will be able to take theatre and fashion together as a freshman. But the only way to get it is to give up study hall and move science off a year and take it 10-12 when the traditional route is 9-11. One counselor was pretty much all NO but she asked another and she said she has a student who did it but they prefer that all the grades stay together, and Mariah would be taking science with underclassmen. Ack - who cares? She'll be able to ACT like it doesn't matter. On the line titled "career aspirations" I am inserting Costume/Fashion Design, even though it made Mariah's eyes cross and plenty of objections to me planning her life tried to work their way out but she was too overwhelmed to speak. I told her this was my best strategy to get what she wants. It doesn't matter what you put down in 2012 for the career you think you'll want in 2020! This is still America and we can make this stuff up.

Sadly, art got the heave-ho. Mariah will probably get to take Visual Art I in 10th grade, and we decided she could join Art Club (along with the 6 other clubs she is interested in) and still get an infusion of artistic creativity and maybe some portfolio pieces for her college applications. Gotta think that far ahead!

All the what if's and stress of choosing and selecting classes for 4 years sent a pale Mariah to bed with a headache.

It's just not easy when you're above normal. I like the sound of that. So much better than "not normal".