A few weeks ago they sent home a student council form. Fifth and sixth graders were allowed to run for the four main positions (president-sixth grade only, vice-president, secretary and treasurer). The whole process was really fast and kind of crazy. On Friday they sent home the form. Kids who wanted to run had to fill it out and answer a bunch of questions about themselves and why they wanted to run and then turn it in first thing Tuesday morning (there wasn't any school on Monday). The forms went to a teacher committee that picked four kids to run for each position.
Andy wanted to run for vice-president so he typed up all his answers and turned them in. Forms were due on Tuesday and they told the kids who would move on that Friday. We were so proud that he made it to the next round. Except that meant he had to make up to five posters that could go up as early as Monday (yes, the next school day after he found out), had to come down on Thursday (three days later) and voting was on Friday. Holy whirlwind Batman!
I took him shopping for poster supplies and was trying to help him come up with all these great ideas for posters but then I remembered that it was elementary school and I should try to let him do the majority of it himself. So I took a step back, which is very hard for my type-A self, and let him plan out how he wanted his posters. In the end it took us a long time to make them and vice-president is a really long word and doesn't fit on anything so not only did I only make one poster but even Sarah got to make one. I didn't think he would even use hers but again, it's elementary school so they didn't have to be anything fancy.
He wrote a speech with a tiny bit of help from Charlie and me (but really more organization help and maybe you should talk about this help instead of us writing it for him) and decided he would also play his saxophone during his speech time. I didn't really understand his desire to play the saxophone, but he thought he needed something to stand out and it was way better than his first idea to sing a song. Apparently some kid did that last year and won and another kid did it this year and won so it works.
Unfortunately he didn't win and the kid he lost to was the only person he did not want to lose to. He lost to the same kid for class rep last year and he still has a sour taste in his mouth from it. This is one part of the move that's been tough. The kid who won has lots of friends and has been going to school here since kindergarten and knows a lot of people. Andy does not. He's working on it and getting better, but not a lot of people know him. Plus he's not always the most patient or calm person (yes he takes after me) so I'm not sure how the people that do know him feel about him. He is always talking about how he needs to make more friends. But he did get some really nice notes from kids in his class telling him he did a great job with his speech which was nice to see, and two different parents also told Charlie and me how wonderful he was.
Unfortunately he couldn't even run for class rep because the class rep forms were due the morning of the election, and to fill that out and turn it in would have been admitting defeat before the vice-president election was even over. I'm not sure why they rushed through everything, you would think if someone didn't get an elected position they might still want to run for class rep, but I don't understand a lot of things they do at the schools, I just try to go along with it. Sometimes that's how life is and I'd like to teach my kid to roll with the punches instead of complaining about how unfair or unjust everything is.
Though I was sad for him that he didn't win, and we both came to the conclusion separately that going out for frozen yogurt would help that sting a little bit, I was so proud of him for trying and putting himself out there in front of the whole school. He is really coming into his own and figuring out what he wants to do with band, student council, scouts and even his hair. Charlie and I are trying to guide him and help him along the way, but I am amazed at how confident he is in himself and how he does what he wants to do regardless of what his classmates think. I really hope he stays this way and continues to create his own path and not just follow along with everybody else. My little man is growing up way too fast.
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