my beautiful girl got the word yesterday that she's free to graduate - she even managed to get her cap and gown. the girl, who would tell you otherwise, is actually quite smart, she just has this problem with believing in herself. most kids are like this, only she manages to sabotage herself along with not believing in herself. thus, she "can't" do math (yes she can, she just needs to stop letting it freak her out) and had a hold on the whole graduation thing until as such time as she cleared 2 grades.

and she yells at me for thinking i can't do it - whatever it happens to be.

so, we're all set. graduation about to happen: check!

tickets purchased for (very short, grumble) visit: check!

recruiter happy: check!

they're starting the whole packing and determining what gets stored, what gets dumped, what gets given away thing that needs to be done before she actually heads into boot camp. they're also working on cat stuff to get her cat out here. that whole high school thing is about over and she's very happy.

but i knew she could do it. she's smart. she had a rough start in school, and that's what got her freaked out about math. shoving any kid through 2 grades in one year is bound to give them a shaky foundation in something, we're just lucky it didn't turn out worse than it did. but, like my husband, her brain freezes up on the math, not because she can't do it, but because it seems such an overwhelming task. i kept telling her all it was, pretty much, was memorization: memorize the formula and where you use it and wala! math becomes easy. worked for me in college, anyway, and i was an 'a' student. but like my dear hubby, she just chokes when it come to math.

okay, granted, for awhile there she was choking on anything school related. what can i say, she finally discovered boys. (and she'll shoot me for that, but it's true. she's the one girl in the bunch who didn't have a "boyfriend" by the time she was 8.)

she's also a very talented girl, but, again, i think her mind plays tricks on her. i'm almost certain the whole military thing is a way to avoid auditions. auditions make her nervous, very nervous. if she's in the military, no auditions. who knows, maybe the military will help her with confidence level, because that's where the problem lies. i just don't want her to lose an opportunity because she was running away. dancing isn't like writing - you can't pick it back up again and hope to be a success 20 years later.

my baby. she's 18. she'll be all graduated. and soon all militaried. she's almost there. she's almost all growed up.

but, if she's at all like her mama, she may get there. growing up will always be something for when she's older.

i can live with that. ;)