Yesterday, my second son James graduated from High School. I didn't pay much attention during the ceremonies,which consisted mainly of presentation of awards to achievers in the academic and non-academic fields. I guess my behavior was understandable because James wasn't going to receive any medals or plaques.
I'm sure that if he had only excelled in academics and was going to receive medals,Jaja and I would have been very attentive. I could not help but mention to her that when I was in elementary,High School and College,my parents,specially Mommy,was probably on top of the world seeing her son going up the stage to receive recognition and even deliver Valedictory addresses (since I was class valedictorian in High School and College.)
Jaja jokingly asked how come none of our kids inherited our abilities. I pointed out to her that we did have Tasha who got medals...only it was in the field of athletics and not academics!
I replied that if we had really wanted them to excel in academics,then we should have spent more of our time supervising their studies and driving them to achieve like my Mom did to me. But,I pointed out (maybe as an excuse...or maybe out of experience),I didn't want to push them at the expense of them not enjoying their childhood.
I also remarked that from my own experience with my batchmates,it wasn't really the brightest who turned out to be the richest and most successful in life. There are in fact many from my Bedan batchmates who were not in the star section but are now rich individuals because of either business savvy, sales acumen or just plain hard work and luck! On the whole,though most of us who were above average performers did well in life and are living in comfort, some of our brightest are struggling.
Personally, I have very high hopes for James in spite of the fact that he almost didn't pass high school and doesn't show the flair for academics that his siblings show. I even predict he will be the richest among them mainly because of his business sense and people relations skills.
Yesterday, when his name was called, there was a big round of applause. When we asked him why, he said it was probably because his photo,which was projected on screen looked funny. But I would like to believe it was also because he was so popular with many in his batch!
Time will tell whether I am right or I am wrong. Maybe I'll have the answer when I'm finally driving my BMW and basking in the Caribbean courtesy of my rich son, James...the son who almost failed High School...but made it with honors in the school of life.
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