Shadowing

Next year N will probably be taking a class or two (or three) at the local school, and part of that process is visiting the various schools to make an informed choice. They call this process “shadowing,” whereby the prospective student follows another student around at the school, thus “shadowing” him or her. A did it when she was just starting out, and N is following suit. Now he has several friends who go to the big city school, so when it came time to shadow there, I figured it wouldn't be a bad idea to shadow with one of the girls he knows, mainly because she's cute and hip and has cute and hip friends. It's not a bad thing for a guy to surround himself with girls, especially ones he feels comfortable with, and maybe finds attractive, though I can't comment on that part.

A few of his hockey teammates also go there, as well as his best friend, though I didn't want him to hole up in a corner with said friend and talk about drones all day. I was hoping for a broader and more expansive experience, maybe even a little outside of his comfort zone. N was game for whatever came his way. So, being the neurotic and overbearing parent that I am, I texted (I'm so hip and high-tech) his female friend and asked if she'd be willing to be N's host. I did this about two weeks before the shadow day, and she never responded. I waited and even asked A and N to follow up, but got zero cooperation. With only a few days to go, I finally told the school to just assign a person for him. I didn't want to be the annoying parent who embarrasses his kids, even if I excel at it.

On the morning of the shadow day, A&N and myself headed into school. I have to say, it was an enjoyable ride, and we joked around the whole way and had fun. I even said that if he had morning classes our commute was going to be a blast, though it might not include me at that point. We left early to have some extra time because I had to check him in, and it's a good thing we did because there was a major accident on the highway, slowing traffic to a crawl. We weren't horribly late, but they did request that we get there early to meet with the host student, and of course we screwed that up. Everyone seemed to know about the accident (life in a small town), so they cut us some slack. Interestingly enough, while we were walking to school, we saw the girl in question arriving, as well. I don't think she realized that this day was N's shadow day, despite my entreaties.

We got to the office and met up with his host, and off they went. My plan was to meet up after school, so I spent the day in the big city doing poster boy work and taking care of life's necessities. When I returned to the school, I learned that N's female friend commandeered him from his assigned host and took him around with her buddy, instead. How cool is that? I was stoked to learn that the scenario that I failed to set up actually fell into place, anyway. Plus, these girls are friends with N's best buddy, so they got to hang out, as well, so a good time was had by all. I love when that happens.

I asked N how his day went and he tried to play it off with a cool detached ambivalence, but I for one was happy with the way things transpired. Then again, nobody cares what I think.

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Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to snapawayyoungman for the pic.