phew. update on my son.

[DFW]

8. Our elder daughter did a 180 when she finally left the house.

Finally on her own, 8000 miles from us, it was what straightened her out. She didn't do drugs, but she just didn't seem to have any ambition to do much of anything (like grow up, for example!) while spending a year at home after graduating the German equivalent of high school. We made her do internships in her field in Germany and apply to schools in that field during that time. She got accepted at a school in Los Angeles. So I accompanied her to California, spent 3 days getting her settled in, and spelling out little details she wouldn't have known. And then I left back for Germany. Boom, she learned the ropes, got to go to school with kids a LOT different from her, some of whom burned out and left. After two years on her own, not always in the easiest of situations, she was a changed person. Moved to New York City, finished college, got a job that paid poverty wages. learned to live on a shoestring budget, and started to claw her way upwards. She refused all my offers of help, said she'd take it only if she failed on her own--a total reversal of the party girl who wouldn't get off the sofa except to go to a disco five years before.

So kudos too your boy for having the willpower to get himself back on track!

Side note--I grew up outside of Falls Church! Dirt roads when I was a kid. They did pave them eventually.