The Chit Chat Chit Chat Thread

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
In my experience, sports becomes a way into college. Academic scholarships are few and far between, especially at state colleges. And it seems, a lot of families haven't really saved any money for the kids college fund. So for many families here, it seems sports scholarship, or community college. The high school doesn't help with that story. You should see the signing day news spreads my district puts out. Care to guess how many news items are about the academic scholarships, or the few in a very large district that get a full ride because of their academic accomplishments? That would be zero.

And you know what the kid has to do to qualify to play in that sport/activity? In a lot of sports, if you didn't start by the time you were in kindergarten, you missed the window. If it is something that just recently became popular, or they don't start until later, like lacrosse or volleyball, then you are paying thousands of dollars in off season to get your kid more experience, training,whatever. It is a small investment, though on the parents part, since the parent seems to know that their kid will get the full ride scholarship for college. Do they think the kid will do it professionally? Probably not. Do they think it will get their kid into a good school, and allow all parties to be debt free at the end of it? Yes.
I think that depends on where you are though. Coming from Wyoming, hardly anyone ever got a decent sports scholarship. There was one guy who got a full ride to Nebraska State, and then he was about to sign to a pro team and busted up his knee...career over. But he is the only one ever in the history of our high school to get that scholarship. We just can't compete with the schools in more populated areas. On the other hand, our local university gave my brother a full ride for academics, and I had tuition and fees for 4 years for academic, where music only paid for my voice lessons, even being one of the top singers in the state in my year. And the newspaper in our county always did an article about scholarships and one of the news stations in the state put pictures of the top few students from every town, set to music, that played in between commercials. Then on graduation day, the local paper put out a special edition with every graduating seniors' pictures and a write-up about the valedictorian and Salutatorian of each school. Don't get me wrong, sports were a huge thing, but when it came to scholarships, you needed to be a top student academically to get them.
 

Gabe1

Ivory Tower Squabble EST 2011. WINDMILL SURVIVOR
Pants are unmentionables on that side of the pond. They also call sweaters jumpers.:hilarious::hilarious::hilarious::hilarious::hilarious::hilarious::hilarious:

I have a forum friend for years and years that hails from Australia. She kept talking about it being chilly season and needing to put her jumper on. Genuinely confused thinking in my head well why are you taking your jumper off during the work day woman? Little by little I learn more over the pond English which seems to differ from our
'american'
 

Gabe1

Ivory Tower Squabble EST 2011. WINDMILL SURVIVOR
My parents pored milk down my throat twice a day:grumpy::grumpy::grumpy::grumpy: Nothing like walking to school almost doubled over. I learned quickly to pour mine into a sibling's glass when nobody was looking:angelic::angelic::angelic::angelic::angelic: No milk didn't seem to hurt my growth:joyfull:

I've never been able to drink milk. I was force fed milk 3 times a day at least. It is hard to articulate that as a kid. My communication was more I don't like that over that makes me sick.

What made me want to bang my head into the wall is too find out much later in life neither of my parents could drink milk without doubling over. I had one of those moments then 'well what the heck did you think was happening to Sis and I every-time we drank milk and wound up back and forth to the bathroom. Me, I quickly saw that neither of my kids could drink milk. I can't remember the percentages but it is a good chunk of people who cannot tolerate milk. I'm short but I think its genetics, my one Gran was only 4'10" thinking that had more to do with it.
 

MouseDreaming

Well-Known Member
I agree with starting kids early in some sports. I started ds in gymnastics at 9 and the oldest dd was 12. One dd was 5. Youngest started at 24 months and the only reason I started her was because she constantly wanted to be upside down. She would also do backbends off my lap and i would flip her onto her feet. She loved it from day one and for a toddler, was the only kid who actually listened and paid attention. She is the only one who has truly excelled and at 4 they asked her to be on a prep cheer team because she was so focused at a young age. She still is very focused and of all the kids is the most competitive and goal oriented even at 7. All kids are different. I don’t push, I just have followed her lead. I do see cheer as a way for a possible scholarship in the future if she continues, especially since it is now going to be an Olympic sport. It has also been a great way to make friends and learn about teamwork.
Year before my DS graduated high school, a local girl got a full ride cheer scholarship to Northwestern.
 

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
I feel like I have a regular length torso, but I definitely have to buy tall bathing suits, so who knows. It's the shoes that really get me. They don't make a heck of a lot of cute shoes in size 10. I miss the days when flared pants were a thing because the bigger the bottom hem of my pants was, the smaller my feet looked, LOL
See, I think it's totally unfair that you actually got the height to go with the "big feet". I wear size 9.5 shoe and I'm several inches shorter. People EXPECT you to have big feet if you're tall, but not so much when you are average height. But you're right....finding shoes is a nightmare. I HATE shoe shopping.
 

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
After numerous panic attacks, I am finally home!!!! They were like you can leave early. It's like I'll leave now but I don't want to seem to greedy.

First picture is the bridge I travel everyday. Picture not taken by me and bridge was closed. And second is my alternate route which I was stuck on the bridge freaking out for a good ten minutes waiting to get by. Might have been shorter but it felt longer. I need a drink. I only have beer....need something stronger.

View attachment 267755
View attachment 267757
Glad you made it home safely, though! I keep a stash of stronger stuff for just such occassions. I'm not a huge drinker, but sometimes, you need a pick me up. I'd be happy to share my Baileys or Amaretto...which would you prefer?
 

Gabe1

Ivory Tower Squabble EST 2011. WINDMILL SURVIVOR
I agree with starting kids early in some sports. I started ds in gymnastics at 9 and the oldest dd was 12. One dd was 5. Youngest started at 24 months and the only reason I started her was because she constantly wanted to be upside down. She would also do backbends off my lap and i would flip her onto her feet. She loved it from day one and for a toddler, was the only kid who actually listened and paid attention. She is the only one who has truly excelled and at 4 they asked her to be on a prep cheer team because she was so focused at a young age. She still is very focused and of all the kids is the most competitive and goal oriented even at 7. All kids are different. I don’t push, I just have followed her lead. I do see cheer as a way for a possible scholarship in the future if she continues, especially since it is now going to be an Olympic sport. It has also been a great way to make friends and learn about teamwork.

My Dad had us in a YMCA pool very young. I could swim a lap of a pool at three. He took my younger sister into the water with me before she could walk. He took us to Chicago beaches when we younger and he wanted us to be strong swimmers. We would spend about a month in Florida (pre WDW being built) each spring. We were in and out of the ocean on blow up rafts riding the waves. My Mom can't swim. She is deathly afraid of the water. He knew she'd be useless in an emergency so his goal was to make sure we were very strong swimmers. He'd throw pennies in the diving well for us to fetch. He'd have us swim to him in open water and kept moving backwards as we tried to reach him. He wanted us to struggle and become stronger and stronger. Could have pinched him then but I did eventually get what he was going for much later

I did the same with my kids they were in the water as babies. Their Dad can't swim and is afraid of water obviously that is over his head. They went on swimteam as soon as they could swim 2 laps, I like my Dad believed swimming was a necessary life skill. It evolved into a sport.
 

Gabe1

Ivory Tower Squabble EST 2011. WINDMILL SURVIVOR
My school stayed open to the end of the traditional school day. The school district canceled all after school and evening events. The wind is really picking up. At 3:45PM I saw one wire dangling and flapping from a utility pole. Windshields are covered with slush. Driveways are still fine.
Thanks for asking.....and wishing all of you a safe and good night. :)

Be safe!
 

Figgy1

Well-Known Member
See, I think it's totally unfair that you actually got the height to go with the "big feet". I wear size 9.5 shoe and I'm several inches shorter. People EXPECT you to have big feet if you're tall, but not so much when you are average height. But you're right....finding shoes is a nightmare. I HATE shoe shopping.
Sympathy like. I see shoes up to 11 all the time.
 

DryerLintFan

Well-Known Member
Should have drunk milk with every meal and eaten vla for dessert like us born Dutchies.;)
My parents pored milk down my throat twice a day:grumpy::grumpy::grumpy::grumpy: Nothing like walking to school almost doubled over. I learned quickly to pour mine into a sibling's glass when nobody was looking:angelic::angelic::angelic::angelic::angelic: No milk didn't seem to hurt my growth:joyfull:

A doesn't get hardly any milk at all and she's still in the 93rd percentile for height and 86th for weight :hilarious::hilarious:
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom