GT Ben

Once there was a kid named Ben.  He was a middle child, wedged firmly in the middle of 4 distinct and quite lively personalities, but he was determined to be the liveliest of them all.  Sometimes it got him into trouble.  Even though Ben wanted more than anything to be THE STAR OF THE SHOW, one of the next items on his bucket list was to be as mind-blowingly smart as his on and off again mentor, his older brother Matt.  When they shared a room, the boys stayed up late into the night as Matt recited all sorts of facts to his brother and then quizzed him on the facts.  Ben loved that one on one time.  So, naturally, when his teacher asked his mom if he could take the tests to determine if he could be in a challenging program just like Matt, he was very thrilled.  He hounded his teacher to know when he could test, but waited patiently for the most part...and took the tests...complaining to his mom about how he loved taking tests but these were pretty hard.  Then he waited some more.  And finally he ran proudly to the car one day after school but wouldn't tell his mom his secret as he wanted Matt to know first.

Next year, Ben will get to be in the GT Challenge program and good riddance.  He is so proud of himself and has had the roughest time fitting in and finding true friends.  Hopefully a new group of kids to see once a week and the opportunity to expand his mind rather than be a bit bored with math sometimes will make a difference.

As aside, it's funny because when Matt's teacher asked for him to be tested, I was so proud.  He's like some sort of little genius, I thought.  Little did I know that sometimes it would feel like Matt and I were on different planets.  Now with Ben being his very own, very different very BEN type of person, I know that we will have another planet in the solar system for me to navigate to, especially when middle school comes.  For me, having a kid who gets bored with all the regular and normally exciting or challenging things has been my own challenge program, and it is stinking hard at times, so I'm a bit nervous for Ben to fit that mold.  However, Ben has thrown pretty much anything you could imagine at me as far as the good kid but in desperate need of attention and wanting to test all the boundaries variety goes. 

Good luck, Ben.  I can't wait to see what all my kids will grow up to be and do, but you will be the greatest surprise of all, I'm sure, no matter what.  (just make it surprising in a wonderful, non-criminal kind of way, and you'll go far)

Now if I can get their bodies to catch up to their minds in coordination and prowess, that'd be something that'd shock my system thoroughly.