Shock & Awe

So there are times in a parent’s life that children tend to cause a sudden shock to our systems. You know what I’m talking about right? For instance, you unexpectedly get pregnant when you have a six year old and you have been trying for 4 years. Or said baby come out with reddish blonde hair and bright blue eyes when your first child has brown hair and brown eyes. Another example is when your mail lady sends you a private message asking if that is your son on the camo golf cart riding in our yard peeing off the side, (she also stated “I thought that was Tal Poss’ kid). The list can go on forever with this one and I am not kidding. Do you know that I have walked through Wal-Mart with a smiley face sticker on each butt cheek only to get to the car for him to take his thumb out of his mouth and tell me to turn around. He promptly plucked the stickers off of my butt and put them on the back of his hands….UGH! Adam is quiet and always has been so he could just do stuff and you would never know it until the proof came out! This kid has always been FULL of surprises. Over the years I’ve learned to laugh and forgive him for many things.
Last night was no exception at all, he told me less than twenty four hours before the event that he was invited to the Academic Awards Night at school. I asked him what he was getting and in true Adam response he said “I have no idea.” So I frantically tell my mama & Tal’s mama about it and make a call to his sister in Charleston. She assured me she would be there and not to tell him in case something came up. Our entire family was already exhilarated by the LCHS Golf Team winning first place in their region on Monday night and now he gets an invite for Academic Awards!! Woot Woot!!
I’m going to back track for a minute so I can explain why I was so shocked by his invitation. When he was in 10th grade I met with Dr. Gunby, the principal, and told him that I was not going to set Adam up for failure just to be an honor student. Some changes had been made to the way you became an honor student and it is pretty rigorous. Adam is my carefree, do just enough to get by, fly by the seat of your pants and make NO plans kind of child. Get my point? I have always picked my battles with him and I was not prepared to fight with him and make him hate school. I never thought anything more about it to be honest with you. I was just glad his grades were good, he was an athlete and all around good kid. He was able to get accepted to Augusta University, his first choice so Mama was happy!
Tuesday night made Mama so happy she couldn’t even sleep! We are sitting there about 8-9 rows back from Adam and they announce the SAT/ACT High Achievers category and what had to be accomplished to receive this award.  I knew that Adam would be getting this because he did good on his SAT. It came with $100 to put toward his education. They called his name. I was so proud and figured that was it. When they got to Scholar Athlete Awards I figured it went to the kids that were recognized through the year as scholar athletes. They stated that they had to play sports for three years and have an overall A average. THEY CALLED HIS NAME! I leaned over, told Mama “he has an A average” and we just grinned. He walked like he was trying to catch the bus on the highway of death to get to the stage and we clapped. I snapped pictures it was great! The program continues and give away what seemed like a million more awards and I figured that was it for Adam.

Myasthenia Gravis was not being very nice and trying to make me look a like Popeye – Grumpy Cat combo. When I am tired I loose all ability to control my facial expressions and my right eye just shuts. It’s not a pretty look that is for sure! After loosing the facial control, my neck gets weak and then my arms and legs. One thing I have a bad habit of doing when I get tired is moving my arms and legs. If they stop working I am up poop creek with no paddle. Someone is going to have to physically get me to the vehicle. I wish I could say my husband whisks me up in his arms and carries me wherever I need to go. Nope, it’s more like he bends over hoists me up over his shoulder and just totes me flailing around to the car. Yep, butt in air, head flopping ugliness going on. Anyway, Tal was not present for the awards, he chose to stay home, guess who is regretting that choice?

Anyway, I am wiggling and moving around making sure my body is going to work for me so I can leave on my own accord and all of a sudden in the middle of handing out gold tassels to the honor graduates they get to a couple of kids in front of Adam. We sit there patiently waiting to leave and next they announce “Adam Poss”…all four of our jaws dropped in our laps and I burst out in tears. My baby boy achieved something I had put aside as him never wanting to be bothered by. In a million years I never dreamed he would achieve this and it’s not because I didn’t think he could, I just thought he would never want to. I have made HIM do ALL the work his entire high school career. My philosophy is “I am not fixing you supper while you are 40 and still parked on my sofa!” You have to do it yourself and he did!
My mother in law described it best as “pure pride” that we felt. We were beaming! When Adam looked at us he gave us his trademark crooked grin and I swear his tooth in the corner of his mouth cha-chinged in the light like an Orbit gum commercial! And then he walked like he was still trying to catch the bus on the highway of death while racing snails. BTW-The snails were in the lead.

When it was all over I told him how proud I was of him and asked him when he knew. He said “UUUHHHH, when they called my name.” That is Adam for you! My goodness my heart is so full and happy right now I can hardly stand myself. My baby will be walking across the football field his grandmother, father, sister and numerous other relatives walked to receive their diplomas in just a few short weeks. I love life in our small town. I am attaching a video with just one of the highlights from this week. The seniors don their caps and gowns and walk through the halls of the same elementary school they attended to the delight and applause of the children attending there now. Last night I made sure that Adam had all of his stuff so he could put on his attire and proudly walk through the school one last time. He assured me he had it all this morning when I called to wake him up. “Have a great day, I love you” I said. “I love you too” he replied. All was well with the world. My friend Kathy Moore recorded this video for me and sent it to me. I was beaming with pride in my office only to see Adam looks naked under his gown because all I can see is hairy legs and tennis shoes. Good grief! I immediately text him and asked him if he was wearing shorts to which his text reply came back “maybe”! Oh sweet mother of pearl, my life will never be boring with this one!

Thanks for reading, sorry if I chased too many rabbits, excitement will do that for you!
~Melynda

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