Latest / Good Morning From The Chicken Coop! / Season 5 - Episode 49 - The path to graduation

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Season 5 - Episode 49 - The path to graduation · Good Morning From The Chicken Coop!

• 0:01
  Hey everybody, welcome to the good morning from the Chicken
• 0:04
  Coop podcast. My name is Kim Johnson and I am
• 0:07
  a mastermindset coach, creative strategist, and also happened to
• 0:10
  be a farmer. This is my chicken coop and I
• 0:12
  come out here every day to record a podcast to teach
• 0:16
  distinctions, possibilities, new ways of thinking, and just bring
• 0:20
  some joy into the world. So welcome to the coop and let's
• 0:23
  start your day off in a fantastic way.
• 0:27
  Hey everybody, good morning from the chicken coop.
• 0:30
  My son is 17 years old and he is in his last year of school.
• 0:38
  And it's not because he's, you know, ahead in age.
• 0:41
  Nope, that's not it. He powered through his junior
• 0:46
  year and now he is decided to start his senior year and he has
• 0:52
  he has a very different track. We homeschool because he wants
• 0:55
  to be a plumber and he has decided that he wants to
• 0:59
  graduate in June with his online class.
• 1:02
  Now he we homeschool, but he goes to an online accredited
• 1:06
  school and they have made accommodations for him to do
• 1:10
  school work as well as trade work over the course of his
• 1:14
  year. So he's getting credits for his
• 1:16
  plumbing, which is a beautiful thing and something that I think
• 1:20
  more schools should do. When you know what you want to
• 1:22
  do and you have a passion for it, which he definitely does.
• 1:26
  It is fascinating to see how much he, he like thrives in it.
• 1:31
  I mean, he really, really thrives in doing this work.
• 1:35
  So he said to me this past week that he wanted to finish in
• 1:41
  June. I want to graduate in June.
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  Now my state of mind is he's not even going to be 18 when he
• 1:46
  graduates. I don't want him to do this.
• 1:49
  Like this is all in going on in my head.
• 1:51
  There's a whole conversation it thank God it's not coming out of
• 1:53
  my mouth. It's just going on in my head.
• 1:56
  And I'm like, no, I don't want him to graduate.
• 1:59
  It's too soon. I was ready for next June.
• 2:01
  I'm not ready for this June. It's too scary.
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  And in my head, there was an higher conversation going on
• 2:08
  about this. And I mean a full blown
• 2:10
  conversation about this. I was very, very mixed emotions,
• 2:15
  excited and torn up. I don't want him to grow up.
• 2:19
  I don't want this. I don't want that.
• 2:22
  And I never said a word. I just sat there and I listened
• 2:25
  to him and I said, OK, let me talk to the school and see what
• 2:28
  the requirements are. And because he's, he does the
• 2:30
  applied work, he, he can accumulate hours differently
• 2:35
  than other students can. So for instance, when he goes to
• 2:37
  work on a Wednesday, Thursday and a Friday, he's working
• 2:42
  between 8 and 10 hour days because that's what you do when
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  you're a plumber. So he he racks up points towards
• 2:50
  his credits quicker and those are towards science and math,
• 2:56
  which is lovely. So he can make that requirement.
• 2:58
  And then we have to figure out his minimums of the other
• 3:01
  things. And he's got to finish English
• 3:02
  and he's got to finish history. Well, actually this year at
• 3:06
  Civics. So we look at it, we look at the
• 3:09
  course setups because you can dial in your times online.
• 3:13
  They've got his little wheel and you can push it and say, OK, if
• 3:15
  I want to finish by this date, can I make it?
• 3:17
  And it says, yes, he can make it.
• 3:19
  So he's all on point with this. And then the school says to me,
• 3:24
  well, he's going to be part of the graduation.
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  Does he want a cap and gown? Because they do it online.
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  And I was like, oh, I got excited.
• 3:31
  Like, OK, I'll get him a cap and gown.
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  And da da da. And I, he woke up and this
• 3:36
  morning and this all happened this morning between yesterday
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  and this morning. And so I wake up, he wakes up,
• 3:41
  he comes out and he says, you know, do you hear from the
• 3:44
  school? Everything's good.
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  Yes, but you know what, you get to have a cap and gown ceremony.
• 3:48
  He goes, oh, I've attended those before with the other my other
• 3:52
  friends that were graduating. I just didn't, I don't care for
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  it at all. It's it's not my, it's not my
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  thing. I don't want to do it.
• 3:58
  And I was like, you don't want to be part of the ceremony.
• 4:00
  He goes, no, they can put up a picture of me.
• 4:02
  You can take a picture of me. And I was like, well, we'll go
• 4:04
  get a picture taken. No, I don't want that.
• 4:06
  I just want you to finish this. I want to be done.
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  I want to enroll in my online plumbing classes so that I can
• 4:13
  get those in line and get my certifications.
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  And he has this whole mission in his head to be a master plumber
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  by the time he's 2122, depending upon the hours.
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  And I had this whole thing of just finishing high school and I
• 4:28
  had this epiphany where I had to stop and say, wait, I'm putting
• 4:32
  my rules on this on him. And his plan is actually
• 4:35
  working. And his plan accelerates him
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  into his own business. By the time he is 2122 years
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  old, he will be able to have his own truck, his own business.
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  And two of his friends who he were, who are plumbers that he
• 4:51
  works with now want to also do this kind of thing.
• 4:55
  So he's he's on this path being drawn in and my emotion was
• 5:01
  stopping him and I had to catch myself and say, hold on, just be
• 5:07
  quiet and hear him out. So when he was going through
• 5:09
  this, no cap and gown, no this, no that, I had to say, OK, OK, I
• 5:13
  understand. Is it OK if I have a party for
• 5:16
  you? And he was like, oh, what kind
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  of party? And I was like a party where we
• 5:19
  would invite people and they could come and we could meet
• 5:23
  somewhere. If you wanted, do it at a
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  restaurant. He's telling me who you would
• 5:26
  want. I'm like, OK, so no cap and
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  gown, none of the things that I wanted but what he wants.
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  And I think that that's the lesson of the day, listening to
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  the people around you so that you really have clarity on them
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  and not just yourself and your own expectations.
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  Because boy, it kicked my ass this morning.
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  All right, my friends, I hope you have a blessed day and I
• 5:48
  will see you tomorrow. Bye.