A SERIOUS 6th Grade Year!

 James has been a SERIOUS middle schooler this year...in more ways than one! Middle school has really suited him and, in spite of all of the "worldly knowledge" we have gained this year, he has done some really amazing things and I AM SO PROUD. If you'd compared him to ME in 6th grade, you would see a night and day difference. We have zero idea where he gets his confidence from, but {most of the time} we are very glad he has it.

Here are a few of his notable accomplishments:

He swam on the swim team for the first time {almost} ever. Following a short Pre-K run in swim team {the year he was worried he would drown in the middle of the pool and DQ-ed himself during his second event}, he has really only played baseball. This year, he was talked into swimming {everyone makes the team and "we get out of school early and eat Chick-fil-A on the way to the meets!"} and while he wasn't the rockstar of the team, we were pretty impressed at this rookie and how much he improved over the season. There's talk of doing spring/summer swim with the local team to prep for his 7th grade fall season! Stay tuned.

He participated in Future Business Leaders of America and DID rock it. He has LOVED, LOVED, LOVED FBLA, the kids in it, and his advisor. He and a teammate won region and placed third in state! He will definitely be participating next year!

He tried out for both baseball AND tennis this year and didn't make either so he "walked on" to the golf team. He was a little fussy about golf because you have to qualify for tournament play and he has lots of kids ahead of him that have played for many years. We encouraged him to keep showing up for practice and giving it his all and he would improve over time. {Being a 6th grader can be a tough road!} Last week, his coach texted him and said that he was really impressed with the time he's put in this year and the attitude he's had and because he had so many kids out for the tournaments over Spring Break, he wanted to give James the chance to play. James got to play in TWO tournaments this week and, while he didn't make the leaderboard, he learned a lot and WE learned a lot and hopefully he'll be ready to do it again next season. {Although, I suspect he will try out for baseball and tennis again because those are his favorites! HA!}

While we still have a long way to go before he's ready to grow up and leave our nest, he is certainly learning and growing a LOT this year. I'd say maturing, but I'm not sure we're quite there yet. HA. In addition to school things, he's also very involved at church and has gone on quite a few big trips without us this year - a youth retreat in the fall to Jekyll Island, Universal Studios in January with the youth, and Sea World with the 6th graders in March.

Can you even believe the end of the school year is almost here?!