My nightmare

The summer before my junior year in high school was an eventful one to say the least. My parents divorced, my first serious boyfriend, whom I loved madly, dumped me, a benign tumor was found in my sinuses and my mother, in her infinite wisdom, kicked me out of the house. I was 16 years old. When the time to register for my junior year arrived there was a small matter of a registration fee. I don’t recall the amount of the fee, but it was peanuts to my mother and with in my financial limits, I requested the money from my mother and she refused to pay. I also refused to pay the registration fee. I missed the first 42 days of my junior year, it took 42 days for the school’s administration and my mother to find out that I was not in school, I didn’t move and yes I was still alive.

The fall out of missing the first 42 days of school was win-win for me. I was allowed live with my grandparents, instead of on the streets or with my mother. Also a very compassionate high school counselor was convinced that I “dropped out” of school because it wasn’t challenging me and that I needed to go to college to be appropriately challenge. It was decided that I would go to college instead, and receive dual credit. All my college credits would count for my high school graduation too. There was one catch; I had to go back to high school for one class a day. However I never set foot in a high school classroom after that.

The time arrived for me to graduate from high school, and I was so nervous! I was convinced that they would not let me graduate from high school because I did not return for my one class a day in the last year and half. I did attend college and I did very well. I spent the entire rehearsal and evening of graduation, hiding from the administrators and teachers, least the sight of me remind them that I did not hold up to my end of the bargain.

For years after wards I had a reoccurring nightmare, where I would be getting ready to graduate with BS, MS or PhD and someone would say, “Wait a minute, you didn’t graduate from high school we can’t let you graduate from college.” And I would have to go back and complete high school. The dreamed changed as my education changes. Even while working on my PhD I would have to dream, where I was I forced to go back and complete high school in order to receive my PhD. Now like all reoccurring nightmares this seems ridiculous in the light of day until today. I just learned from one of my co-workers that this very thing happened to his son. His son left high school early went to college, because high school was not challenging him. But the high school would not give him credit for his college classes. The son just received a full scholarship to Princeton, which was almost revoked because he did not graduate from high school, even though he is a 4.0 student in engineering at the local University!!

The son had to complete summer school at an alternative school last week, and this week shipped out to New Jersey! Can they still make me go back to high school all these years and advanced degrees later??