One more year of high school to go!

Well, it's been a couple of years since I wrote a post. It is certainly not due to having too much peace and quiet in my life and, therefore, nothing to write about!

My daughter is now 18 and has been in tertiary education for almost a year. She will receive a diploma in a couple of weeks and received a scholarship halfway through her course for being the highest-ranking Humanities student at the college where she is studying. Her hard work and passion has earned her a place in 2nd year Architecture in 2016. Her father and I could not be more proud than we are.

Today she starts a summer job in a building company as an office junior and I wish for her every success as she deserves it.

She is still a teenager, however. She is learning to feel empathy and learning to control her emotions. She is learning to stand on her own two feet and take fledgling leaps closer and closer to the edge.

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My son has one more year of secondary schooling to go and things have been...eventful...since I last wrote.

He did go on to a new state school (a local high school with small numbers of students in a low-socio-economic area) and it was great for his self-esteem and education. He was accepted into their basketball specialist programme and developed a love of fitness and began body-building. He made wonderful new friends from all over the place who always have his back, so to speak, if there is an issue with bullying. He is still victimised on occasion for his choice of hair, clothes, etc but I don't think of it any more so much as 'bullying'; it's more like he's a target. But he is strong and he stands up for himself, even if it means physically-defending himself against assault.

He is back at the catholic school he started at and, whilst there are still major issues there on a monthly basis of some kind, he is better and better at dealing with them as they arise. His physique helps in this and his strong mental attitude. He also understands that he needs psychological strategies from a councellor in order to build his resilience and to circumnavigate possible trouble when it rears it head.

All these things have brought us closer together as a family, however. We are all there for each other even if the lessons are sometimes tough and hard to swallow.

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Being part of a strong family is not anything to do with being perfect. We, as a family, have many problems we need to deal with on a daily basis (many of which get shoved under the carpet until ignoring them becomes impossible). We are here and that, to me any way, is what counts the most: we owe a lot of money and our finances are in disarray; I work way too hard and retreat from my responsibilities way too often; I let the kids get away with way too much they should have been picked up on years ago; and we bicker and carry on over the smallest things like the length of showers, who's got dibs on the one bathroom we own, and how my skills with handling the family's money really sucks the big one.

But we are here for each other and we love each other. And that is all I can see that truly counts.