In September Sebastian will begin as a probationary chorister. This is a huge honour and something that he wanted to do. I wasn't so keen on the idea but when your child wants an opportunity to be a part of something bigger than himself, you kinda don't want to get in the way.
Yes, that might mean your very own sacrifices but this isn't about me. It's about him. He is going to be performing with one of the world's greatest boy's choirs in the world. The training he will receive will benefit him for the rest of his life. And he wanted to do it. I've never seen him so determined as I did before his audition.
But the step towards Year4, and choristing, and boarding all at once seemed a step too far. Seb is like me and doesn't like change. So we decided to break it up into bite size chunks. He'll do a night of boarding every week for the remainder of the year and then next year when he goes to 2 times (Tuesday and Thursday) every week it won't be such a shock for everyone involved.
The boarding school is great fun for the boys. They have a big flat screen TV. They have a Play Station, a Wii, an xBox. They have gap students who's sole purpose in life is to entertain them. They have each other. They have a chef in the dining hall who cooks them amazing dinners and a hot breakfast every day. They have supervised prep to help them with their homework. they have tennis courts and a swimming pool and cricket grounds. Quite frankly, it's a bit better than home.
Except we're not there.
Abigail misses her brother when he is away. The first morning she was in a state and didn't quite know what to do with herself. The next week she wasn't quite so bad. And she has announced that starting in Year3 she wants to board.
From the day a child is conceived everything you do, every decision you make, every guidance you give moves you closer to that place where that child ceases to be a child, ceases to be reliant on you and moves out into the big world. Show me the child at 7 and I'll show you the man. We've done a great job raising him and our job isn't finished.
For now, he's merely having a sleepover once every week! Stop worrying.....
1 comment:
I just read this post, such exciting times for you all! Very interesting - and great - that Sebastian can ease into the boarding gradually. That hasn't been possibly with Tom, as the school (more accurately the choir) demand that he boards right from year 3.
We can see their point given there's rehearsal at 07.45 each morning and often evensong at 5 every evening. The burden would be on us to get him there on time and collect - it's up in town and as we both work, well let's just say it wouldn't be easy - plus of course he'll just be knackered.
See my most recent post http://nowboarding.typepad.com/now_boarding/ but this week he's up there all weekend as he eases into being a full-time chorister.
We're going to miss him like crazy...
All the best...
Post a Comment