To quote Douglas Adams, “I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.” Thankfully we just squeaked in ahead of one. My son is a high school senior this school year. How that happened so quickly, I don’t know. But I do know I’ve always planned to take his senior photos myself. That’s what happens when your mom is a photographer. But as a typically moody teen he has been putting off our photo shoot for months. Luckily I was looking at his school’s web site and happened to see the deadline to submit senior photos – for the yearbook – is December 18th. So last Saturday I rushed out the door with the kiddo and my camera bag. We already had a full day planned but I maintain a mental list of photo shoot spots around the metro area. I plotted a path that followed our agenda for the day and it worked out pretty well, despite the cold weather. Fall leaves and milder weather would have made for a more pleasant shoot but apparently my son wanted to wait until he switched from green to purple hair. Fair enough. I’m still floored he was nominated to Homecoming Court back in October, green hair and all. And that he won by a landslide. My son, the benevolent ruler. He has come such a long way. I had my doubts when we first moved from St Paul to Minneapolis for high school. He had only just moved from a restricted autism room setting to general, mainstream classrooms in eighth grade. Then ninth grade had a very bumpy start and we’ve dealt with quite a lot of staff turnover at the high school. Particularly with autism case managers. But the student body at this school has always been so welcoming of my son and all his quirks. He found his place. And I hope he continues to do so into adulthood.
