Motherhood.

So, this week, Eli - without any prompting by me - goes and sees his guidance counselor at school. It seems that he didn't like the path he was on. He changed his schedule and added Driver's Ed. That is just fine, we let him have one "fluff" class per semester. He changed to Honors Chemistry in the Spring. He also changed this path from Science something to Science something else.

Then, he handed me a packet because he wants to apply to Tennessee Govenors School. Great, I say. I start to fill it out. Then, I get on the internet, and I read that, if accepted, he will be gone for five weeks this summer. Ouch. I felt the burn.

Five weeks, I thought.

Me: Ummm.... Five weeks? In a dorm? And you will only be 16?

Eli: Well, It won't be that far away. And I don't know that I will get accepted. We just have to apply. But it will count toward those college credits that I need, and next year, MY JUNIOR YEAR, I am taking six college hours WHILE I AM IN HIGH SCHOOL... and since you are a teacher, it won't cost that much, and WHEN I GO TO COLLEGE IN ONLY TWO YEARS it will help me out ... (at this point I tuned him out and I heard)..

Me: Two years, I have been saying two years, but he could go away for five weeks now, and then WHAT next summer, and then what if he sees bad stuff in the world and I am not there and he doesn't call and who will help him find socks and what if he can't remember how to cook an egg and what if his pencil breaks and he can't find a sharpener and he may run out of notebook paper and he uses an awful lot of shampoo and doesn't have a blowdryer....

INSERT MEDICATION HERE

What really happened is -
Me: Ok, Eli, Let's fill these papers out. And you have to write an essay. This should be fun.
Eli: Well, just how long of an essay?

And I knew that my Eli was in there somewhere :)