What Will the Guys Think?

Time for a funny story.  I hope my son doesn’t mind me telling it, but it happened almost 20 years ago, so I think I’m safe.

My son was a bit unusual.  I realized this early on, and my husband and I decided he really needed to be home-schooled.  He was highly self-motivated and sped through the materials I gave him.  At the age of 13, he came to me with a brochure of classes at the local junior college.  It had been inserted in the local newspaper.  He informed me he wanted to take an American History course in the fall semester.

He had to jump through a few extra hoops because of his age, but when college began in late August, he was ready to go.  He was, of course, not old enough to drive, so I took him to the campus.  I wanted him to feel comfortable walking in to his first class, so we arrived early to scope things out.  I suggested we walk through the building and identify the classroom, so he would be confident.  He was clearly going to stick out like a sore thumb, whether or not he knew where he was going, because at 13 he had not yet had his growth spurt and looked like a little kid.

After locating the room, we went back outside and sat at a picnic table.  He said to me, “Mom, I am a bit concerned about this.  I am not worried about the academics.  I know I can do it.  But, I don’t know how I will be received.  Oh….I know what the girls will think.  They’ll think I’m just a cute little boy, but I don’t know what the guys will think.”

I replied, “Well, I don’t know either.  We’ll just have to wait and see.”

He went off to his first class.  I went to run some errands and returned in time to pick him up.  I sat in my car in the parking lot and watched for him to emerge from the building.  Soon I saw him, but he was not alone.  Next to him walked a rather stunning young woman.  She was dressed in tight blue jeans and a form-fitting sweater which showed off her attractive figure.  She had dark hair cascading over her shoulders and pretty features.  They strolled to the parking lot together, talking and laughing as though they were already good friends.

He got in the car, and I couldn’t help myself.  I said, “Nate, I know what the guys think.”

“You do?!" he said startled.

“Yes…they hate you,” I said with a laugh.

I continued, “You know, probably over half the guys in your class, would have loved to walk to the parking lot with that girl.  How did that happen?”

“Well, after class she came over and asked me how old I was, and we just got talking.”

He had three sisters who were teenagers when he was born, so talking to an “older woman” came easily for him.

He eventually made friends both male and female.  Everyone was older than he was, and some were even grandparents, or mothers who wanted to fix him up with their daughters.  But, he had a wonderful experience and even got involved with student government.  So much for the notion that home-schooling has a negative impact on social skills.