Our Journey to Graduation During a Pandemic…Part 2 (when being too transparent goes wrong)

Two years ago today, I created a Facebook post that included all the benefits of Dual Enrollment at Forsyth Tech. During that time, we’d just entered the pandemic. I didn’t fully understand the type of student I had, but I definitely understood the child I birthed. 😳😩😂

He had already taken a FTCC course and did really well. He also found a deep enough interest in Cybersecurity that he chose to switch his major from healthcare to IT. The pandemic hit and Michai’s junior year at Tabor became a MESS, mainly because his focus was completely off with virtual learning (and gals), but surprisingly he kept up with his FTCC work.

Fall 2021, aka senior year, came and Michai contracted Covid causing him to have to quarantine during the end of the 1st quarter and beginning of 2nd quarter. There is no hybrid option for Tabor (or schools in general) this year, and he also did not do what he could have done virtually. He shut down, much like he did his junior year, resulting in some poor 1st quarter grades.

Now…Michai will tell a lie, regardless of me telling him:

1. I more than likely know the answer already, I’m just asking to see if he’ll be honest.

2. My spirit will not rest if something isn’t right with those in my circle. Thus the reason he made it clear, when I was struggling emotionally a couple weeks ago, that it wasn’t him causing me angst.

I inquired multiple times about FTCC and he told me he was up-to-date on all his work, but my spirit wouldn’t settle. While he knows I went to college and knew the college schedule, he also knew I wasn’t checking FTCC’s portal as much because I didn’t have the capacity after my bout with Covid, and this year was to be a trial run of his college experience. Let’s just say, Michai took FULL advantage of BOTH.🙄

January comes, and while WSFCS was still on winter break, I knew FTCC should have been resuming. Michai kept giving me the 🤷🏾‍♂️ face, and my spirit kept telling me something wasn’t right, so I logged into his portal to learn he failed the course. Why? He didn’t turn in any work when he had Covid, nor did he notify the professor, and notifying the professor is College Success 101. For some reason he continues to feel, despite me constantly finding out without his help and being upset with having to do so, it’s better for me to find out on my own versus him telling me.

It also didn’t help that I learned and was transparent about the discrepancy between WSFCS, FTCC and the NC Department of Education, causing some of his FTCC classes to not count as college credit. Honestly, I think that is when he gave up doing the FTCC work.

The failed course forced a lot of urgent e-mails/calls to Tabor and FTCC to learn whether his spring schedule and/or graduation requirements would be affected. Those e-mails/calls were all Michai’s responsibility because Michai’s Mom is tired. 😮‍💨

He will not receive his Cybersecurity certificate from FTCC, but I hope the failing process is out of his system before he gets to NCAT; where the learning opportunity is much more expensive. Ultimately, I hope he learned another reason why communication is so important, ways to properly communicate, and that I may fuss but I will still support him (as long as it’s legal 🙂).

64 school days left…pray for Michai to successfully complete high school, for him to complete these scholarship applications, for him to receive scholarships, for him to receive RENEWABLE scholarships, for the distractions of gals to be limited, for him to always communicate with me and for him to be who God will have him to be. Only pray, though, if you know how to get your prayers though 💁🏾‍♀️🤷🏾‍♀️😘.

We’re almost at the K-12 finish line…🙌🏾💃🏾🙌🏾💃🏾🙌🏾