Future Politician

I have a deal with Avery...I will support him in all of the sports that he would like to participate in as long as he also participates in at least one academic club at some point in the school year. Our school has a decent number of choices including academic decathlon, speech meet, battle of the books, yearbook, science fair, student newspaper, student government, pep band, and robotics. I even suggested AWANA as being an option. AWANA is the church youth program.

Of course, as we were going through the list of choices, none of them appealed to him at all. Eventually, it become of a conversation about which choice was the least unappealing. He had settled on academic decathlon. Student government was the one I was trying to talk him into because I think he would enjoy it. Avery loves to debate/argue for how things should/shouldnt be or things he should be able to do. I think being in student government would have him to see that there are more sides of the argument than just his own.

A funny related story... the other night, we were having dinner and he told me that he was thinking about being a lawyer when he grows up. I asked him why and this was his response..."Because I like to argue about things, even sometimes when I dont even agree with them myself." Yes, that's what lawyers do...and politicians. Student government could help you refine your debate skills. But he still refused to consider student government even though several of his friends are in it.

So, today was the day for the kids to nominate people for class officers during class meetings. As I stood in the 10th grade class meeting and watched the chaos of nominations and seconds unfurl, I knew there was going to be NO WAY that Avery would escape from his 9th grade meeting without having been nominated for something. And knowing how susceptible to peer pressure he is, I knew he wouldnt decline his nomination. Sometimes peer pressure can be a good thing :)

With a few minutes of the school day left, he tracked me down and told me that he was running for 9th grade class representative. He then proceeded to describe his plans for his campaign posters and asked if he could go over to a friends house to work on them. Sure. About an hour later, I got a call from him asking if I would drive him out to the sand pit so that he could do a photo op for his campaign poster. Sure. And could I bring him a laptop from school to work on it? Sure.

By the time he went to bed last night, he had used the picture above to create a champaign poster to hang around the 9th grade hallway. He worked on it for several hours. Elections are next week, but given the competition he's pretty confident that he'll win. Joining student government also means that he'll have STUCO homeroom, which I think will be another good opportunity for him.

Sometimes getting want I want is pretty easy. Things have a way of working out just the way that they should.