Danielle will be in charge of the education

I read this article today:
http://deadspin.com/5893189/what-happens-when-a-35+year+old-man-retakes-the-sat
which subsequently took me into a car crash of emotion, mental gymnastics, and denial of my own SAT experiences.

Sienna is being raised by parents who both receive English degrees - I also picked up a minor in Psychology and a concentration in Computer Science as UMASS gives you extra diplomas when you're in school long enough - which does not signify collegiate success, merely that both parents took the SATs.

Danielle was a far superior student to myself. She received high grades in High School, scoring well on her SATs while exhibiting study habits worthy of inclusion to Bronx Science High School. For non-New Yorkers this was the second most difficult high school to get into. I know this since OTHER students who went there at the same time as Danielle told me this - when I asked Danielle she simply shrugged. Danielle leaves the bragging of her accomplishments to me.

My own SAT and High School experience was a swampland of mediocrity with an island of A+ grades in subjects I enjoyed, where my father played the role of filling in the swamp to make it habitable. Okay, that was a stretch of an analogy at best. My father spent many a day screaming at me for bad grades, being spot on that I was intelligent as I'd take books to class, not disturbing anyone as I quiet read in the back of the classroom while some teacher spouted gobblygook. Turns out Dad was right, though it didn't help my study habits.

Remarkably enough in the SAT section I received a perfect score in one of the grammar sections. Apparently only a few students received such an honor. Or so a teacher told me. I thought of it more as even a blind squirrel finds a nut.

I didn't really start focusing in college until my Junior and then two Senior years. Intelligence and interest destroying a lack of good study habits. Which is why Danielle gets to work with Sienna on study habits. I never really had good study habits, my last three years of college was finding classes I liked - mostly high level writing classes that I had to talk my way into - Psychology courses and accounting courses. Even my computer science classes did not require good study habits - they required data structures comprehension, which somehow I understood.

So thank you deadspin for a nam like flashback to my education. Oh, interestingly enough Sienna has shown an enjoyment of music already - I hope she becomes a math or music major. That way Danielle and I can continue the time honored tradition of parent not understanding child and still allow Sienna to bellow out, "You just don't get me!"

Wayne