My oldest daughter, who is 17 years old as I write this, is enrolled in high school with Penn Foster High School and is working on her diploma. If you've been following my blog, you know that we took her out of her brick and mortar local high school and allowed her to work on her education online. It's really common for degree-seeking students to attack their degrees online, but seemingly much less common for high school students.
My daughter, who is still very much a kid to me, really surprised me a few weeks back. She made what I consider to be a very, very mature decision. In fact, the decision has really allowed me to see her in a different light. She's very close to being more than just a kid, but in fact she's close to being a woman. So what was this decision that impressed me so much? She quit her job.
Okay, before you misinterpret what I'm saying here, quitting her job was not because she is lazy or unhappy at work, but rather because she found that the time she is spending at work has started to put her a little behind on her graduation schedule. We've mapped out exactly when each unit needs to be completed at Penn Foster so that she will be able to graduate from high school at the same time as she would have had she stayed in brick and mortar school.
My daughter, who lives with us of course, doesn't HAVE to work. She worked because it gave her money to do the things she liked to do. She had no bills, no car payments, no insurance to pay for, she simply enjoyed working to have spending money. She made what I consider to be a very mature decision. She wants to make certain she graduates on time so she made achieving her high school diploma her top priority.
I'm impressed. And she spent the past few weeks starting to get caught up on some of those milestones where she's fallen behind.
Good for her!