The Cowboard

My youngest daughter is a Sr in High School this year. Currently she is the Commanding Officer for V the Freeport Navy JROTC and Air Rifle Team Commander. She is a 3 year member of the National Honor Society as and is in the top 25 of a Sr class of 350 or so. Her Air Rifle team is arguably the best JROTC team this year finishing at worst in 2nd place twice this year. She consistently is placing in or just out of the Finals in every tournament they have entered. She has 2 tourneys left, one in Camp Perry Ohio for a team tourney and lastly at the American Legion Tourney in Colorado Springs Colorado at the Olympic Training Center. Only 15 people world wide are invited to attend. Currently she is ranked 3rd, less than 5 points out of first. Freeports #1 shooter is ineligible to compete as she won this tourney last year. Just to show how strong Freeport is, of those 15 people invited to compete Freeport will not only be sending my daughter but 4 competitors to shoot for this title. Any dad would be proud of their kid but it just gets better. Lindsay was interviewed as a candidate for an appointment to the United States Naval Academy but Freeport doesn't have a great record with the appointments so she didn't get that. A week ago today she received a letter from the Navy ROTC program. She was rewarded with 4 year FULL RIDE SCHOLARSHIP going to the University of Arizona and will be studying Physics. This scholarship is valued at $186,000 and pays all but her lodging and food. She currently has enough other scholarships to pay her Freshman year in full and part of her sophomore year. The highs and lows have been crazy this year for me. November 1st I shattered my right leg and this week was the first I've been able to walk on that leg since I broke it. Regardless this is the best week of my life. This is a life changer for my child. I've got a smile that DaVinci himself couldn't knock off my face with his chisel and hammer.

Congratulations on raising a fine daughter. {Lie Father, Like Daughter}. Give her a hug for me, and don't worry, the smile will eventually fade. LOL God bless.

What a great story about what our youth and your daughter have done and continue to do. You have every right to be proud for raising a fine daughter and supporting her interests. In many cases if the children and young adults had the support they needed early on things may have been different. Not blaming anyone for anything just saying it can and does work out great sometimes as in your situation.

Thank you folks. I don't think either of us have wrapped our heads around this completely. We are so thankful for this scholarship but as with anything you get a whole new set of issues. We will get through this though. We certainly didn't plan on her being 2000 miles away...lol.

Update on my youngest. At the end of her first semester (nearly a year ago already) she was the only member of her class on the Dean's List. Her math program (teachers) didn't suit her so she looked into astronomy. Ultimately she has set on Pre-Law and doing well. The classes are hard and her GPA has gone down slightly. At the end of this semester, assuming she passes them all, she will become a junior at the University of Arizona. In mid October she was home for a week and married her long time boyfriend. He's enlisted in the Marines

Latest update on my daughter Lindsay. At the end of last semester (Christmas) she has accumulated enough credits that she is now a Junior in College but still a Sophomore in her NROTC. She has since declared not only her pre-Law Bachelors Degree but has added Psychology as a DOUBLE MAJOR. She also said that the NROTC has installed a marksmanship team and she is BACK shooting again. Still ironing out all the details on that but she gets to revisit that activity. She told me "That since I started college I FINALLY LOVE what I'm doing!" Don't know if I could feel more proud of her.
My eldest daughter is 1 semester from her Associate's Degree and is in process of transferring to the Champaign Illinois area to finish the Associate's and then transfer to the University of Illinois to complete her English Teachers Degree. Been a long learning road for her but again so proud she is so close to her degree.