Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion The ultimate brag thread

Dd14 was one of 10 freshman to make the second highest level of her high school orchestra (this a big accomplishment, the school is hyper-competitive in every way and there are 2,800 students). She also made it into the next level of the local youth symphony. But the big brag is that the conductor asked her to stand and demontrate and told the other students they should play like her! And when they returned from an excursion and I was picking her up, he ran over to the car and introduced himself and said he could tell she would be one of his best students and he was thrilled to have her. She was glowing! This is especially exciting because she had a few setbacks last year (didn't make it beyond first round of all-state auditions) but she buckled down and practiced hard. I am really happy for her to see her hard work pay off!
edited to add: just realized I said 14! She is actually 13. Not trying to rush her or anything, lol!

Deacongirl, that is one terrific brag! Your daughter must feel so proud of her hard work.

Thanks Aquinas! Yes, you should have seen her face! The conductor is fantastic, all the kids love him, but he has very high standards--that was high praise from him!

Love this, deacongirl! Congrats to your DD!!

Isn't it great to see when the effort really pays off? And when someone you and your kid really respect takes notice, it's just icing on the cake. My DD is following a strikingly similar path this year, and loving it. What a joy to be immersed daily in fantastic music, with kids who are equally passionate.

Thank you! Violin has been so good for her. I am also very thankful for the amazing orchestra program at her school, and it has been a wonderful way to make friends too. Oh--and I have to add to the brag (I know you all understand because I can't really do it anywhere else!)-after seating auditions for 1at concert she was 1st violin, 4th chair--she didn't expect to do so well considering the competition so it was great!

Deacongirl, how lovely!! It's just amazing to see their pride when truly hard work pays off so handsomely like that. Way to go!!




Today was DD15's first day of college classes. She is thrilled, and completely at home in that environment. No problems whatsoever taking notes, fitting in, or having a great time being engaged. She has four professors that she likes already, and the only down side is that she is a bit petite for a monster 40+lb backpack, which is unfortunately the curse of the commuting STEM student. That was just with her mini-laptop, her chem textbook, and the reading text for one gen ed class.

She was also one of just a handful of young women in her computer science course of well over 100 people. So she wore day-glo pink, just to put a bit of an exclamation point on things, I guess. Last I heard from her, she had polished off her chemistry chapter and was happily coding away in Python before hopping a bus to a friend's house to study chemistry together and eat pizza or nachos.

I was wondering how your daughter was doing, Howler Karma. Sounds like she's in the right place!

HK, a great beginning for your DD. I'm sure many more happy semesters will follow. She is finally home.

Congratulations to all three DDs - swimmer, musician and computer scientist!
Edited to ask HK - did you reveal the college she ended up at somewhere or is it too identifying? Would love to know where a pg kid like her fits right in...

I can't believe her college is starting so late...when does she take final exams for the semester?