Herbie Wants to be a Dentist!!

Okay, so in this scenario, Herbie is Nick. Seriously. And he doesn't want to be a full-blown dentist, he wants to be a dental hygienist. Pretty cool, right?

I have to admit I'm surprised but I'm not by this. Confused? Let me explain... When Nick was little, he needed a LOT of dental work. We were bad parents who let our child sleep with the bottle. Sometimes there was just NO other way to get that boy to sleep. So at the age of two, he had to have two teeth pulled. This started a snowball effect that went with him for years! We went through dental schools on Long Island and then again here in North Carolina to get all of his work done. He is even in some dental textbook someplace. Again, seriously.

At the age of seven, Nick decided that he wanted to go and work for Disney after our first trip to Disney World. And no, he didn't want to work there with running the rides or dressed as a character, he wanted to DESIGN the rides! It was wild. And you know what? He was good at it! In the seventh grade he took a college level on-line Theme Park Engineering class and scored a 96 on the final! He scored higher than the twenty-something year olds who were taking the class with him! So for years as a homeschooler, I custom made curriculum for him that was geared towards theme park engineering. I thought we were set. I was going to get my condo in Disney and free passes for life! Yeah, me! And then what happens?

Herbie wants to be a dentist!

Remember Herbie the Elf from the Christmas special "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer"? We love that one! But Herbie does not want to be an elf and make toys - just like Nick does not want to be an Imagineer who designs rides. Eerie coincidence?? Today we started doing some serious research on what will be required of him to make this dream a reality. After looking up the courses and their descriptions, I thought for sure he'd be scared off. But he's not. He's actually psyched about it. Then I thought that this was going to be just like the whole Disney thing and he'd be excited about it and then change his mind. But really, at 17, I think he has a little more clarity about what he wants than he did at 7. He's thinking clearly about his future and for that I am thankful.

Unfortunately, we can only make plans in our heads. Until he gets in to the community college, we won't know how this will all play out. He's got one more year at home and he will get to be dual-enrolled next year at the community college but I am unsure how many of the dental classes/requirements he will be able to take as a high school student. We'll have to wait and see. Did I mention that we are not patient people?

My little elf is growing up...