OT - moving daughter up a grade - opinions?

[pooks]

Outwardly I handled it well (much praise for how mature I was), but looking back I realize I hid myself from alot of social stuff cuz I just wasn't ready for it.

My niece, the "life of the party," took a Myers-Briggs test and showed to be an introvert. We all said there had to be a mistake, but she said, "You see how I act. This shows how I feel."

Even her own mother was stunned. So much as we'd like to think different, moms don't always know their kids as well as they think they do.

As a 14-year-old sophomore, I recall taking some antibiotics with my lunch. (Before such things had to be taken through the clinic.) A senior guy sitting at our table asked what I was taking and I joked, "Birth control pills," and laughed because in my world/experience, no high school girl would be taking the PILL, for God's sake. Clearly anybody would know that was a joke.

I didn't realize that one of my closest friends (sitting at the table with me, and a couple of years older than me, though only one grade ahead) was sexually active.

I also didn't realize that the guy believed me until a few months later when he stopped me in the hall and asked if I was still on the pill, and I didn't even remember what he was talking about or why he would ask such a stupid question until a few hours later.

And I also didn't realize until the next year that I had a "reputation" in some circles, even though people who really knew me, knew better.

Hello, high school!

[winddance]

You know, it almost makes me feel better to know that I wasn't the only one who had these issues. Looking back on the experience, I really don't think I would've noticed had I been 17 and everyone else 18, because that age difference could be measured in months. Two years was a lot, though.

When you're a young adult you begin to pass milestones (learner's permit, drivers license, first job, 18th birthday, legal drinking age) and you're two years behind your peers...that creates a lot of social tension. I always needed a ride, because I didn't have my license. I would be invited out while in college, and would have to explain that I wouldn't turn 21 until after I had graduated.

If anything made me feel out of place, this was it.