I have always felt like life started moving faster once we brought Briana home with us from China, but for some reason, life seems to be moving even quicker now. So much quicker.
I think it is because so many life changing things have been happening lately for Miss B. Bri's junior year of high school has been a whirlwind.
I already mentioned in a previous post that she got her braces off, received a new car, was inducted into the national honor society and went to her junior prom.
Since that post (and I only wrote it a little over a month ago), some more big time events have happened.
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One very big life event that happened was Briana getting her first paying job! My baby has a job!
She applied a few places, but the place that got back to her the quickest was Chick-Fil-A. She has several friends who already work there, so she decided to go for it.
CFA contacted her via text to set up a phone interview. That went very well. Then an in-person interview was scheduled. She looked very nice for her interview...
Once she finished that interview, she was hired! She then attended an orientation session and then it was time to train.
Her first day of work/training after school...
Making your first cone at CFA is a big deal. A picture is taken of each newbie with their ice cream cones and then the pictures are posted in the "slack chat" for the restaurant...
I think B's cone turned out very nicely! She is an artist - heh!
I cannot believe she is driving to and from work, taking orders, working a cash register, making money. This is such "grown up" stuff. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around it all.
Briana
told me the other day that several people at school thanked her for various
reasons and she said she almost responded to them by saying "my
pleasure." That is one of the possible side effects of working for
Chick-Fil-A. Ha, ha!
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Briana had a piece of art chosen by her art teacher to be submitted for the 2023 Congressional Art Competition...
12 student
works from B's school (3 paintings/drawings and I want to say 9 ceramics)
were chosen to be entered. I am not even sure how many high schools
there are in our congressional district. We found out that Briana's
painting did not place - which is totally ok. We are still so proud she was even chosen to be entered. All of the students' art pieces were displayed at the
reception. We were invited to attend the reception, but with Briana not
placing, we decided not to attend (it took place early evening on a
Friday night and the venue was a distance away). Honestly, I was
quite content not having to be in the same room with our congressional
district representative (let's just say I didn't vote for her).
Bri's painting is now hanging in my house. I absolutely love it.
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Briana was also invited to join her high school's "International Thespian Society" (an honor society for high school and middle school theater students).
There was an induction ceremony at a beautiful pavilion with lots of twinkling lights...
Briana's theater teacher wore a yellow dress that evening too.
Doug
and I only stayed for the informal induction ceremony at the very beginning of
the evening and left Briana there to have dinner and enjoy the
festivities with her friends.
Here was Bri's induction...
She enjoyed checking out the grounds of the pavilion with her theater friends...
She said she had a lot of fun that night.
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Briana received an invitation to attend the Honors Day ceremony at her high school on Tuesday...
Honors
Day at Briana's high school works a bit differently than what I have
observed at other schools (I think). There are SO many kids who attend
Bri's high school, so they don't have honor roll ceremonies each
semester or anything like that. The school
does announce the top 40 kids (GPA) in each grade each semester, but
there is no ceremony for that. Briana was in the top 40 once last year.
At the end of the school year, the school has an
honors day celebration. A teacher must nominate a student
for an award in order for that student (and two guests) to attend the
award ceremony. And Briana was invited! B was
virtual for 9th grade and she wasn't invited last year for 10th, so it is quite an honor for her to be invited this year! We are excited to find out what she is getting an award for on Tuesday.
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I think I mentioned in an earlier post that Briana will be attending the SCAD workshop/seminar again this summer in Savannah. She really enjoyed the SCAD workshop last summer.
The workshop is quite pricey, so Doug suggested that Briana go for a scholarship this year to help some with the cost. She needed to write an essay and submit three pieces of artwork. And...she got a bronze summer scholarship! Her first scholarship! We were so excited...
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Doug, Bri and I had dinner a couple of weekends ago with our good friends the C family (Bri's friend Meredith's family)...
I look at these girls (ladies) and cannot believe how grown up they are now. They will officially be seniors at the end of this week. How did this happen? Where did these little girls go?
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Bri is all grown up now...
I'm happy and I'm sad. My emotions are all over the place. I am so proud of the woman Briana is becoming, but I am missing the little girl that she was at the same time. It is all very overwhelming.
I just love this kid so much.
Briana's summer vacation will be a mix of going to work, chilling at home and hanging out with friends. She will also go to SCAD camp in Savannah for a week - which she is excited about.
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