This year my house is going to be very different.
On Tuesday, we took Boy Wonder (14) up to his Year 9 in the bush. So this year he is boarding and away from home. I’m both excited and apprehensive about the range
of wonderful experiences he will have and I hope the challenges are manageable.
He will learn all sorts of things about himself and, not that he doesn’t already appreciate home, but after sharing a unit with 13 other boys and chopping wood for hot water, he will certainly see that home is a good place to be! We get to see him every six weeks and in between the only contact is by snail-mail so we’re writing letters the old fashioned way. 
The Lad, who did Year 12 last
year, got a stellar ATAR score and is off to study biomedicine. He moves into residential college on Feb 24th which I have dubbed, “Partyland”. He will be 90 minutes drive away and probably 2+ hours public transport travelling time away so he won’t be home every weekend.
So we are ‘empty nesters’ for 2013 only. I guess it gives me a taste of what it will be like when it happens for good in 2017. Mind you, The Lad may have bounced back again by then especially if he does post-graduate studies which he is talking about.
In a lot of ways having a quiet house will be good because I made a MASSIVE mistake and misunderstood the word ‘production date’. After a chat with my editor, I have just learned that I have seven weeks LESS to write Runaway Groom than I thought. I best get to it!
WOW – I think it’s so awesome what Boy Wonder’s school does. What a great experience!! All schools should do it. And huge congrats on The Lad’s score! Good luck with Runaway Groom – I have every faith in your ability to write a brilliant book AND meet deadline. x Rach!
Thanks, Rach. Glad you have faith! I have to find some