So, we have survived our first week of high school. Although there was a bit of a hectic feel to it, it’s actually the calm before the storm. That might be reflected in the somewhat random, rambling nature of this post.

The school year always starts off with an afternoon of picking up her school books, getting her locker and schedule, gathering those remaining school supplies we forgot, and stressing out over her outfit for the first day of school. Okay, that last bit is a joke. She wears uniforms. Which is why I don’t understand why it takes her sooooo long every morning to get ready!

Entering high school, MM’s school encourages students to find a mentor. The mentor can either be personal or professional. At the start of the summer, we discussed MM finding a mentor who is a psychologist since she has said that’s what she wants to study. While MM was away this summer, I came across an piece written by the editor of a local paper. There was just something about it that made me think, “MM would love her!” I think I was right. She agreed to mentor MM and we got a chance to meet her last weekend. What a wonderful person she is! MM was quiet at the first meeting, but I think she liked what Mentor had to say. (I’m going to call her that since she’s going to be part of MM’s life for the next three years, so I’m likely to write about her a lot.) There is a lot of potential there.

Other than that, there was just a lot of first week stuff. Meeting teachers, getting used to her schedule, planning the year ahead, blah blah blah. It’s next week when the real fun starts.

When MM came to this school in 7th grade, the marching band was super small. She had already been playing the guitar for about four years at that point and since she could read music, the director recruited her in to the varsity marching band. For the first year, she marched and played flute. After that, he brought back the flag corps and moved her to flag. Being a part of the marching band means a very busy fall schedule for both of us. Band practice during the week, pep rally on Friday, and of course football on Friday nights.  Fridays are the craziest as I rush from work to get her food before the game and then the hours spent at school until the game is over. Even though I get a break when they have away games (my one rule has been I don’t do away games, even when it’s around the corner), MM is on the go from the last week of July until about the middle of December. Next week is their first game of the season. It’s also the first performance where MM is a legitimate senior high member of the band. Also, this year, she is making her debut on guitar! Because of that, I have made a compromise on my rule and am traveling to an away game. It’s almost 200 miles away! Yes. TWO HUNDRED. But we are going to make the most of it because we will stay overnight and visit the campus of University of Mississippi. It’s the last weekend before classes start, so the campus will be busy, but we are going to just show ourselves around and check out the town. MM is adamant about leaving the state, but I told her she had to look at local schools as well.

So, with all of this going on (I know, it doesn’t seem like a lot, but it was),  there weren’t any scholarship applications submitted this week. But if you follow us on Twitter, you’ll see we have been busy sharing any great information we’ve found about financial aid, scholarships, applications, etc.  Hopefully MM can shoot off another application this week (we have a couple more quick and easy ones on our list) and we can post a summary here before the week is out.

Can’t wait to share our campus tour with you next weekend!

~Mom