Robby's Bad Day

It is safe to say that Friday was a difficult day for the entire Chenoweth family.  Scott was frustrated by work issues and I felt like I was chasing my tail all day. Unfortunately, Robby received the shortest end of the bad day straw.

The day began to go south when I drove Robby to his home economics/ cooking class. Typically only a 20 minute drive, I allotted myself 30 minutes to arrive early. I didn't expect the seemingly meaningless back-up on the highway. I watched anxiously as my time buffer slowly began to fade. We had planned to be early but ended up being three minutes late.

Although we were late, I really didn't think that it would impact Robby. Well, it turns out that tasks are assigned before class begins, which was promptly at 2:00. By 2:03 all of the "fun" cooking jobs had been claimed. Robby's teacher gave him a lone bell pepper and told him to cut it up.  

Robby took the pepper and got to work. After chopping his pepper he waited for another task to be assigned. When one never materialized, he continued to work on the pepper. After 45 minutes of chopping the same pepper until it was a gelatinous green mess, the teacher finally took notice. In hindsight, Robby admits that he should have garnered the courage to tell his teacher that he was done chopping the pepper before it was completely obliterated. He didn't want to speak out of turn so he figured it was safer to remain quiet.  Lesson learned.

As the classroom delicacies were being passed out, Robby asked his teacher for a small amount. She said okay and then turned to get a bowl. For some reason, Robby took this as an opportunity to walk away from the line to get a sip of water from the water fountain. By the time he returned everybody else had been served and he didn't want to draw attention by asking the teacher again for his bowl.  Another lesson learned- Don't walk away after you request something.  

His bad school day continued into his WWII battle strategy class. The students were assigned battle position based upon the roll of a dice. Robby rolled a six, which placed him in the center of the major battle. His army was eliminated in the first round. He was supposed to reenter the game when another competitor was able to refresh their troops. Unfortunately Robby was too embarrassed to ask for clarification, and he sat the entire game out. Another lesson learned: Don't be afraid to ask your teacher a question.

This school year has been a transition for all of us, most importantly Robby. He is expected to be more independent and to advocate for himself. I see a lot of personal growth in his future.