The End Is Near

The end is in sight. Thursday is the last full day of classes and then summer break begins! Here’s all the things that have been going on to wrap up the school year.

AWARDS. I am proud of all three of my kids, but Jenna has distinguished herself particularly well this year. Last week she was among 18 students from across all five high schools in the county who were recognized at the school board meeting for having made a 30 or above on the ACT. She scored 31 on it back in the fall. The ACT is the popular college entrance test for this region of the country. According to ACT’s website a 31 is roughly equivalent to a score of 1380 on the SAT. Jenna was further honored at the East Robertson award ceremony for earning the highest average in each of her classes. Rest up over the summer, girl. Your senior year is coming.

Ben was also honored the East Robertson award ceremony. He was one of eight students in the eighth grade who scored high on the PLAN test. This is a middle school precursor to the ACT.

Speaking of Ben, he tried out for the high school basketball team last week and was one of five rising freshmen to make the cut. Now we have summer practice to build in to our schedule.

It is not my intention to ignore Nate here. He simply hasn’t had the opportunities for recognition come his way this year. He is doing well and excited that school is just about out.

CONGRATULATIONS. East Robertson held its graduation exercises Friday evening. Among the 70 seniors receiving their diplomas was Bonnie Jones, our cousin and neighbor. Bonnie recently signed on to play volleyball for Brescia University in Owensboro, Kentucky. Way to go, Bonnie, we’re proud of you!

ROBERTSON COUNTY YOUTH LEADERSHIP. Jenna is also wrapping up her involvement with the Robertson County Youth Leadership program which is sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce. She was one of two students from East Robertson chosen to participate in the program back in the fall. (A total of 12 students were in the group.) I may be simplifying this too much but essentially this experience has amounted to monthly field trips from school where the group got to see various aspects of leadership in our county. Each month focused on something different including agriculture, county history, health care, government, law enforcement, and manufacturing. They also took part in a project to give back to the community, in this case, raising money for books for elementary age children. Given all the things Jenna has talked about she’s had some neat exposure to things high school students don’t normally see in our county. We went to a dinner last night celebrating the end of this adventure. I enjoyed hearing the impressions of all the participants, many of whom did not realize how much Robertson County has going on.

A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION. A week ago Friday (the 8th) a friend of ours called and said they had two extra tickets to see Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion the next evening at the Ryman Auditorium and asked if we would want to go. Well of course!

Saturday afternoon found us driving to downtown Nashville to take in the show from the Confederate Gallery. Guest stars were Ricky Skaggs with his wife, Sharon White, and band, Kentucky Thunder. Also there was Blues singer Keb’ Mo’, Stuart Duncan, and Christine DiGillanardo. If you are familiar with the show then you know we enjoyed the regular things like the Guy Noir sketch and The News from Lake Wobegon. It was all good, but the highlight was Keb’ Mo’ and Ricky Skaggs doing a song titled Infinite Eyes.

If you are interested show is archived here for your listening and viewing pleasure. The evening was certainly a pleasant surprise for us and a memory we will treasure.

Joe