Ok here is the PEA status update. F is happy. He is in the last position of the top ladder in tennis- says a strong breeze could blow him off and into the B squad, but for now he is psyched. He is taking the dreaded history 333 - a rite of passage in 11th grade where they have to write a very long paper. In it he will tackle the Cuban missile crisis. He is finishing up the second part of calculus, and if they let him skip again over the summer, he will be in something called multi variant blah. Apparently every 8 year old South Korean applying to the schools Frederick wants to apply to is at this level. But it has been quite a game of catch up coming from Town school. We met with his college counselor who looked grave when describing what Frederick wanted to sign up for next year. She kind of said other smart kids had landed "bad" grades when they tried to take both of these physics at the same time (Modern and Quantum). She was very kind, but warned us that if he got a B in any of them, he wasn't going to get into the MITs or Caltechs. Thomas' eye roll could be heard a mile away. There is little he finds more annoying than avoiding something hard because you might get your ass kicked. If the kid wants to risk a black eye- that's good isn't it? I remembered this great line from our history teacher's speech at graduation: Rather than collecting medals- you should be collecting scars.
But I still weasly asked Frederick what he was thinking...."what's wrong with a little theater class????" Anyway Down in a blaze of Glory as they say. (see Latin translation above).
On his birthday he was taken well care of by the merry band at Wentwoth- little presents with inside jokes were dropped at his door. I just hope "cool beans" doesn't mean opiods dropping tonight on floor two.
We took the cousins and Will to dinner and Will scored so big on the bday gift. In honor of Frederick's flying lessons, he is now Amelio Earhart. Too funny. Then we had this incredible night of spirited discussion...specifically Did we really need to drop two atom bombs on Japan? or would one have sufficed? We could not get rid of them. Check-in was looming, and yet they stayed debating on and on. Really its the coolest thing- they are these amazing listeners. It's great because it means I can interrupt everyone all night with impunity.
The one I am worried about is Thomas: he is already saying how sad he will be when this is over. We handed over this skinny young thing and he is quickly morphing into this adult who knows things.
Cool Beans as they say at the Tworth
gotta run.... Ill add more gossip as I remember it.
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| MIT pirates ships |
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| Charlie modeling the look |
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| Phillips Exeter Academy's finest |
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| Part of the new indoor sports thing. |
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| seen at Hanna's dorm. Not exactly the vibe at Frederick's |
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| stole a hug in between homework |
