This week my mom and I sat down and looked at all the University programs I was interested in and this week I put in my applications.
He said
With the Taylor Swift concert out of the way, the world settled down a whole, lot more. But, even still the social calendar did not relent last weekend. So, by about the middle of the week, after the three straight days of practice from Sunday through to Tuesday she was starting to hit the wall come Wednesday. It didn’t mean her calendar of hanging out with her friends this weekend got any less, but it did mean that there were plenty of moments where she wedged naps into her life. She’s a busy girl but she manages a lot what with Cheer, school, work, friends and homework too!
Which brings the second big pieces of her week this week. The first being that she received the certificate that certified she had gotten Grade 11 Honour Roll with Distinction. It was a bit of a nice surprise as she thought she had just missed it. Which this folded into the second big part of the week which I will let Danielle talk more about, but Emelia has officially sent off her university application. No surprise, her first choice is still King’s University College and the Childhood and Youth Studies program they have there. So, now it’s all left to waiting to hear if she is accepted, and how soon. Patience is none of our strong suits in this house, so this should be fun.
For me with the 10,000km threshold crossed in the cycle this year earlier in November the only other milestone that came up in the last week was my consecutive days with an outside ride. While that came to an end last Sunday, I still managed to get in plenty more rides outside this week to keep adding to the yearly distance total to the tune of 6 of 7 days this week were outdoor rides. Currently I am sitting at 10,453km which it is starting to look like I just might hit 11,000km this year which blows my mind as I thought 10,000km was an near impossible for me goal.
Lastly on the topic of hitting milestones, yesterday my 2024 Movember campaign crossed over $1,000 raised which puts me into the Platinum Club for the 6th year of my 16 years participating. There is still a week and a few days left so I am going to ramp up my efforts to hopefully drum up more donations to hopefully beat my $1,595 raised last year was my all-time high. But I am also really proud that I have raised a total of $13,183 in the 16 years I have participated!
She said
As we move through Emelia’s last year in high school it seems like the deadlines come up faster than her parents are ready. A few weeks ago the OUAC application website opened for soon to be high school grads to enter their applications for colleges and universities. As part of the application students can choose 3 programs, for Emelia she has known her first choice for a few years. As in Emelia’s past when she is focused on a goal she is laser focused, for years her first choice has been Kings University College. So with that goal she applied for two programs there, her first choice of Childhood and Youth Development, she also applied for the Arts and Humanities program because she could also use that path for Teachers College. With two out of the way she was trying to figure out her third choice. Her program is pretty specialized which meant not a lot of schools offered it. She looked at York (but does not want to live in Toronto), she looked at Brock but they required math and University of Windsor. After reviewing all the programs she chose University of Windsor as she liked it is another smaller university and it helped that John and I both went there. With her application submitted now the real hard part, waiting for her acceptance letters.
With her applications submitted it has really pushed her focus on school. Think the realization that her grades have to be as high as she can make them to help her chances for acceptance has really driven her. The other driving factor for Emelia is also entrance scholarships that places like Kings offer. So the higher her grades the higher the scholarships. No matter the results we are beyond proud of Emelia. Her drive and determination is unmatched. School has never come easy for her, she has had to work so much harder than other students due to her learning disability. But through all the hurdles she has had to overcome she has worked so hard to make her dreams come true.
Once her application was out of the way it seemed to lighten Emelia and her stress of making a decision. As the week went along Emelia and her friends started to shift their focus to the weekend and their party plans. Emelia asked us a few days ahead if she could have her friends here to get ready and then after to stay the night. Of course it was not a problem, we got the office set up for some of the girls and Emelia’s room set up for the rest of them. I drove the girls over to the party and from all the stories after it was quite the party. The girls had a blast, they are for sure living their best lives and making their last year in high school one to remember. This last year is going by so fast, the whole friend group is realizing so quickly how fast, and that after this year how much of their lives are going to change. I am so happy that Emelia’s best friend Bri wants to go to Kings as well.
Outside of school and Emelia’s busy social life we are also balancing her cheer practices. We are getting close to her second competition of the season. It is less than 2 weeks away and the girls are working so hard to get ready. Their coach made some upgrades to the routine to up their difficulty levels in the stunts and clean things up. This second competition is much bigger than the first one they went to. Emelia and her team are excited and nervous as well. It will be double the competition from the last one so this will be the first real test of their routine to see how competitive it is. This team is so much stronger than last year, they are so close and do everything to support each other. So if this is Emelia’s last year in cheer it will be a positive one with hopefully amazing results. We are taking it all in knowing there is a chance this is the end of her competitive sports. Like everything else this has gone by way too fast.