Countdown to graduation: Two different one-year increments in the life of a boy
I was going through Other Jim's school pictures yesterday. It's funny how you don't notice the growing up process when you see a child every day. How did he get from here:
to here:
without me noticing?
They also don't continue on the same rate of change over those years that they grow up. Take OJ's 5th grade and 6th grade pictures.
Not much change in this one year span. I could have mixed them up and no one would have been able to tell the difference.
But as he moved from 6th grade to 7th grade, WHOA.
Yes, I admit a lot of the difference is the hair. He went from having Mom be the sole dictator of his hairstyle to vehemently voicing his own opinion and getting his way more often (because I was tired of fighting with him about it). Notice the shirt is THE SAME ONE. But it's worn in a completely different style because again, in one short year, I had become a minor deity in the pantheon of gods who reigned over his appearance. Shirt and hair aside, he still managed to make a major upgrade in his face from pudgy, baby-faced boy to smirking near-teenager.
Like his kindergarten picture, he has in his 7th grade picture, a certain air of "you'll never guess what I'm going to do" or "you'll never guess what I've just done and I'm trying to hide it." Then again, it may just be the look of someone who finally felt comfortable at school and with books.
7 days til the party, 8 til graduation.
to here:
without me noticing?They also don't continue on the same rate of change over those years that they grow up. Take OJ's 5th grade and 6th grade pictures.
Not much change in this one year span. I could have mixed them up and no one would have been able to tell the difference.
But as he moved from 6th grade to 7th grade, WHOA.
Yes, I admit a lot of the difference is the hair. He went from having Mom be the sole dictator of his hairstyle to vehemently voicing his own opinion and getting his way more often (because I was tired of fighting with him about it). Notice the shirt is THE SAME ONE. But it's worn in a completely different style because again, in one short year, I had become a minor deity in the pantheon of gods who reigned over his appearance. Shirt and hair aside, he still managed to make a major upgrade in his face from pudgy, baby-faced boy to smirking near-teenager.
Like his kindergarten picture, he has in his 7th grade picture, a certain air of "you'll never guess what I'm going to do" or "you'll never guess what I've just done and I'm trying to hide it." Then again, it may just be the look of someone who finally felt comfortable at school and with books.
7 days til the party, 8 til graduation.
Comments
I can't wait to be there. I'm glad you are counting down for me so that I don't have to.