My interactions with Bobby have pretty much been restricted to late night conversations when he comes in at curfew (midnight). Today, he walked in the door, wearing his "Another day, Another struggle" t-shirt, and I asked him if he needed anything.
"You've done more than enough for me," he said, sadly.
I try to get out what's bugging him, and finally do. The ice cream place he worked at fired him for not showing up on the night of his senior prom to work. He worked on Thursday, they posted the schedule on Friday, and prom was on Saturday. He didn't even know he missed the shift until he went in tonight. That does suck. He was hoping that the ice cream place, a chain, would transfer him to the location out at the Univeresity of Maryland so he wouldn't have to find another job there.
He's keeping himself very busy right now. All that's left of his high school career is an essay and one last final, and he's already taking carpentry classes. He wants to learn a trade right now, before he goes to college in mid-July. He spends a lot of time at the library, taking online courses, and a lot of time at the girlfriend's, with whom he has a sweet deal worked out where she gives him her car in exchange for picking her up in the morning. I hope he's happy. He seems halfway there, but tired all the time. I know that combination well.
Ideas I'm considering: throwing him a graduation party and/or buying him a computer for graduation. Maybe I'll just take him out to dinner with the former and offer to pay for a portion of the latter. Dell has sweet deals right now, like always, so I can afford it (although in the summer it gets tough to do so.)
In other news, I have an appointment tomorrow for a summer job as a reading specialist in a cool Baltimore middle school.
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4 comments:
Y'know, if you co-signed on a Dell credit account, he'd have a good start on building his own credit. Just encourage him not to abuse credit.
It's amazing what you're doing for this kid, and it seems like he definitely deserves and appreciates it. You might encourage him to get a job on campus. It gets him involved in the campus, and you can often get paying jobs that also provide units if they relate to the major, plus valuable references. The information for applying for jobs should be available through the school's web site.
if you decide to buy the kid a computer, call me. I have a corporate discount with most brands. It's not much, but it might help.
Epiph, you need to find out what this kid wants to do when he gets to College Park job-wise. As a matter of fact, I still have contacts in different places on campus, so if you want to contact me off-line please do. I can easily get him a line on a technology job if he is interested in that, but if he wants a job elsewhere on campus let me know. I can get him in touch and get him in early (and in some cases, students can start working in the summer).
Seriously, let me know if I can help.
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