This weeks photo challenge is hosted by RedDotCom

1. Fancy dinner, 2. me & colleagues at beach outing, 3. me at rock festival, 4. me & beer

I’m still trying to convince my employer
that I’m doing a job that ought to be done by at least three persons, and that
my multiple personalities do not make up for that since they are not on the
payroll. But there’s a glimmer of hope on the horizon: our top dawg, the
Attorney General, has in principle responded favourably to the idea of a web
bureau which should coordinate the information flow between the prosecution
service, the police and the forensic service, as well as all other things web.
To be established by yours truly. We’ll see. Like everywhere else, our civil
service is not known for its speed, so it could take a few months before I’m
really sure.

Anyways, we’re celebrating the fact that
Wouter has graduated from high school. Right now, Cybernene and I are sitting
in our computer den since Wouter has invited a few friends to celebrate in our
living room and we don’t want to spoil the fun by our presence. The three of us
are probably equally surprised, not to mention shocked, by the fact that he has
passed his exams. He’d probably win the title of Most Easygoing Teen in the
Universe without blinking an eyelid. When he was just a little kid he could
throw a tantrum that would have made J-Lo look like a mere amateur. So when he
grew up, Renee and I were unsure of what we could expect from our teenage son,
but he turned out to be a very sociable, likeable and uber-relaxed kid who
simply doesn’t have it in him to challenge his parents every chance he got.

Unlike so many of my colleagues with
teenage kids who frequently show up at work looking as if they haven’t slept in
a week after yet another clash with their teenage brood, I never could relate
to these horror stories which apparently are as common as rain in Holland -
which is pretty common. The one thing however that had me worried was his
attitude towards scholastic efforts. Over the years, he cultivated his relaxed
attitude towards life in general into an art form when it came to homework,
school tests and projects. I spent many an evening writing a synopsis of a book
he was supposed to have read and made lengthy essays on a variety of historical
subjects just because he couldn’t be bothered to start reading in time. Don’t
get me wrong here, he didn’t refuse to make them, he just wasn’t able to get organised
in time to do the job himself. So after a while we, as a family, accepted that
we would simply go for a pass, any pass, rather than academic excellence.

Wouter has a very bright mind and is the
kind of kid that gets comments on his report card like: ‘if he would only
open a book and pay attention every now and then, Wouter could achieve about
everything he wanted.’ Cybernene tells me that she used to be exactly the same.
If they can’t see the relevance of a subject, she and Wouter couldn’t care
less. I on the other hand, see relevance in everything and given the chance
would happily do a comparative study on a subject like the evolutionary
characteristics of Dutch and Tibetan pet hamsters. Just for fun. So it’s no
wonder that I was the last one to accept that our son would probably never
become a Nobel-prize nominee. But what makes it a lot easier for me is the fact
that he seems to have grown up a happy young man with a healthy amount of
self-respect and self-confidence. And I’m proud of him.