Autumn's Awesomeness

I've decided it's time to dig out the old blog. There are some exciting things happening around our house, and we are expecting quite a few new changes throughout the year. On top of that, I have missed this creative outlet of expressing my thoughts through writing. So, here we go. Pardon the dust as I brush off this old medium to share Autumn's latest awesomeness.

Autumn and friend at a marching band competition, Fall 2015.

Autumn used to love school. She used to always be at the top of her class. She used to love learning... and then she went to high school. I was nervous to watch her veer from such a worthy pursuit to explore more social experiences. She went through a very rough patch for a couple of years because high school is the pits and social experiences can be emotionally draining. But when her senior year arrived, she took it as a cue to refocus on academics. She registered for an online English class to make room in her schedule for more electives -- a move so unusual she had to fight with the school counselor to allow it. This year her schedule includes an online English class, AP Physics, AP Government and Politics, Stagecraft (Technical Theatre), Medical Science, and Veterinary Science. She started off the year in Wind Symphony, but made the decision to leave band behind and started 2nd semester as an aide in Miss Donna's special education class to explore her high level of interest in social work. 

Words can't describe how proud I am of my daughter for her choices. Without going into gritty details, I'll just say that in the not-so-distant past, I didn't believe this was a possible scenario. Not in high school. Not for Autumn.

Autumn in character as "Doonise"
with director/friend Austin, Winter 2016. 

As director of lights for the school play,
Autumn gives Mom a tour of the sound booth at EHS, Fall 2015.

Autumn with Miss Gorman, drama teacher at EHS
 after her two roles in the Senior-directed One Acts, Winter 2016

I did try to warn her not to take on too much. Especially as she started off the year telling me about all of the clubs (some optional, some mandatory) associated with her classes. Besides the band competitions, concerts, and school plays, she started talking about FFA, "We, the People," and HOSA. These were all after-school commitments. I had heard of FFA, but the others were new to me.

Autumn introduced me to these programs this year through her involvement. In "We, the People" she led one of the teams of students from her AP Gov./Pol. class in research and preparing debates on current political issues. They met many times after school, including during Christmas break. In January, they competed against another local high school before a panel of teachers, community leaders, and politicians. They prepared for several possible questions, not knowing until it was their turn to present which of those would be their debate topic. Autumn was amazing (of course) and her school won the competition.

Autumn with teammate, Molly, after the "We, the People"
competition at Heritage High School, January 2016.

I don't have any photos of her in her FFA uniform, because she hates it, but she thinks it's hilarious that she can compete in milk tasting like Napoleon Dynamite and have candid discussions about bull sperm with her peers. This kid...

Her teacher in Medical Science encouraged his students to join HOSA. It used to stand for Health Occupation Students of America, but now it...doesn't. I'm not sure I understand the point of an acronym that no longer has any attachment to its letters. But anyhow, it's still called HOSA, but it stands for Future Health Professionals of America. I guess FHPA is harder to pronounce or something.

I have to admit, that with all of the things Autumn is doing, their details all ran together and my ears didn't really start to perk up until she said she needed money for the state competition in Seattle. So I went to the parent meeting and learned that HOSA is similar to FFA. They learn about their field of interest and then network and compete with others who have the same interests. I guess Autumn took some kind of HOSA test which qualified her to go to the state competition, which she probably told me about, but like I said, I didn't really catch until after the fact. There are something like 52 different areas to compete in. Each competitor was able to choose up to three areas. Autumn competed against other high school students for Nursing Assistant and Veterinary Science. 

I was pretty excited for her once I understood what was going on. And at about 5:30 last night she called me from the awards ceremony to tell me she won! Apparently nerves got the best of her and she bombed the Nursing Assistant piece, but in the category of Veterinary Science she won first place in Washington State and she is qualified to compete at the national level in Nashville, Tennessee, at the end of June! Holy cow! I am one proud mama!

I am at the mercy of Autumn's peers for photography of this awesome event, since I wasn't there. I keep scanning Facebook for pictures, but so far this is the best one I've found. In the photo above, she's on stage in green scrubs accepting her medal.

Autumn's 1st Place medal

 I'm super excited for her to go to Nashville this summer. I'm sure significant fundraising will be involved, but if it is at all feasible, I plan to go with her. After all, she'll need a photographer.