phew. update on my son.

[mopinko]

13. his brother

went through a few lost years, too. only his drug was knowledge. he sat on my couch, fooled around on the web, and ended up teaching himself 3 programming languages, kept learning japanese, and started watching online courses from mit.
but he still didnt want to leave the house.

some friends from high school talked him into doing city year, which is an americorp program. turned him around. a year of volunteering, w strong structure and leadership training, made his realize how much he had to give, and how good that felt.
they get a stipend and money for college. now, we would have been happy to send him to college, but he wanted to do it himself.
he went back to school, got scholarships, got almost straight a's, graduated magna cum laude from uic, and got a full boat from u utah, theoretical math, straight to phd.
he is so happy in school, and esp now. he found his tribe of math nerds, found his physicality. went from a chubby teen to a bike riding, rock climbing man.
still some scar tissue from that difficult process of tearing himself away from home and family, but he is shonuf grown.