This spring, my oldest graduated from an honours program in geology. It took him a few years, off and on, and a couple of false-starts, to finally settle on an education and career path that sparked his interest. He completed the last 3 years of his schooling while living with me and my partner during the school year. For the last 2 years we have attended the same university. Sometimes he'd even acknowledge that he knew me. :-) At one point, I told him that if he didn't get his ass in gear, I'd graduate before him (which I think mildly panicked him, considering I'm only 1 year behind). Last year, we were both on the Dean of Science's honours list. I think that's pretty cool: mom and son both make the Dean's List... He also landed an unexpected job working for one of his professors, "Hey! I got a job today."
"Really? I didn't know you had applied to anything."
"I didn't. A professor saw my presentation and sent me an email offering me part-time work."
He lived here rent free, but paid his dues by cooking many meals, and he is an EXCELLENT/gourmet chef.
In fact, I jokingly asked if he would consider doing a master's degree just so we could continue to partake of his wonderful meals while I finished school (my sweetie thinks breakfast cereal or kraft dinner is an acceptable substitute for dinner when I'm not home). But alas, despite the fact that he is one of the few students on the planet who graduated with money in the bank (thank-you Canadian-Rite-of-Passage, aka Tree Planting), my son had other plans, like a life, and an a job that earns a decent income, and living in Canada's mecca: Vancouver. And his girlfriend wanted to further HER career as well.
And then, two nights ago, after midnight, I get a text message from him, "you awake?". I called him and found out that he received an email from his former professor, offering him a fully funded master's position.
Like the job, he didn't apply for this. The professor was just so impressed with him, he wanted to offer it to my son. Now he has a tough decision to make. The exploration market for gold is in the toilet due to the low prices for gold, so his friends in the industry are telling him it's a great time to do a masters, PLUS the project would give him valuable skills in other exploration markets. He's still trying to sort things out, because his girlfriend had planned to go back to school and do a law degree at UBC. Him coming back to Ontario to do a master's degree would throw a real kink in those plans. Life is loaded with difficult decisions and compromises and I don't envy them theirs.
Of course, he's welcome back here if he chooses to do his master's, and I won't charge either rent if they are both on the school track. Help out with food and do some cooking and cleaning, and I'm a happy camper. He's just damned lucky I didn't rent out his room... (I was THIS close....)
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