You can’t do that!

It’s a statement that we have heard from one person or another for many years. The latest was when I brought Miranda in for a dr’s check-up last week. I told our Dr. (whom we’ve known for 16 years) that we are heading out again this year for a 4-month travel sabbatical. After talking about our plans for a bit she said, well I guess this is good timing for a trip like this because once Miranda’s in high school then you can’t go on a trip like that again.”

 I reminded her that Colton is in grade 11 now and he is of course coming with. This is how….

When we went to Asia/Australia 3 years ago, we assumed that this was going to have to be our last extended family trip. Ever. Because now that Colton was going into high school, that was it. You can’t (according to everyone else) take a high school student out of school for 3 or 4 months and possibly jeopardize their ability to graduate with their class. That is just not fair and we of course, we would never do that. We also knew that once he was done high school, Miranda would be there and by then Colton would be an adult and off to explore the world on his own, potentially. So like I started, we assumed that that was our last family trip. Which is also what others continued to remind us of.

When we registered Colton in grade nine and talked to the principal about our sadness about not doing the type of travel that we loved again as a family, he said, of course we could. Why not!

What! But how would it work? How could we take Colton out of school and how would he still get the credits required by the school or province to graduate. Well, apparently it’s not as hard as we thought.

Colton has worked very hard the last 2 years to make sure it would work for him (and us (: ). He is now in grade 11. While in grade 10, instead of taking courses that he could choose to take, like band, choir or home ec. He took some grade 11 classes, like grade 11 history and grade 11 pre-cal. He also made sure to take a full course load and not take any spares. This gave him an advantage this year, because he could then fit in the required courses into the first term. In grade 11 you need to have 5 required classes that everyone has to take, history, math, science, physical ed and English. The remaining courses he needed he could fit into this first term and now all his requirements are done! But, this still leaves the credit requirements.

Last summer a teacher asking if he would be interested in doing a summer apprenticeship program approached Colton. Colton was planning on working all summer in construction. There is a program set up by the government that gives apprenticeship students high school credits for the hours worked in those programs. This worked perfectly into our plans because Colton could then acquire his last 5 remaining missed credits through summer work, which he was going to do anyways!

So I think, if there is a WILL than there is a WAY. If you have a dream worth dreaming, it is a dream worth pursuing. Never let anyone tell you that you can’t do that! If it is your dream, figure out a way to make it happen. Even if it seems impossible to everyone else, it may be doable. 

                                        Summer dreaming