I Need To Vent.......

Last weekend was the annual Invent Idaho regional finals. How did Danielle do, you ask??? Well, she didn't. Here's why......

For some strange reason (that I will go into later) her school decided NOT to participate in the Invent Idaho program this year. Yep, they blew it. But.... then why do I feel like I blew it? I am just so ticked off. I had the whole weekend to vent about it, and think about it, and think about it some more, and I still woke up this morning irritated.

You know, Danielle has participated in this program for the past two years. Her first year she made it through her school portion, and then on to the regionals. The second year, she made it all the way to state. We happily traveled down to Boise to take in this awesome experience with our daughter, who was mesmerized. We had a great time, and it was such a great opportunity.

So, this year, as you can imagine, Danielle had multiple ideas of inventions that she was looking forward to creating. She literally talked about it all year long. Then came the article in the paper, and we all looked at each other in disbelief. "The Invent Idaho regional final took place yesterday......." What??? Why weren't we aware of this. It can't be. It must be a mis-print. Nope. It was true. So Danielle and I traveled to the mall, where the inventions were being displayed, and we talked to the regional coordinator, and we asked her if she knew why a particular school WOULDN'T participate in the competition. She just said that she wasn't sure, and she knew that we were from Post Falls, and she said she hoped that next year we would be able to participate again. So, Danielle and I left, and she was still bummed out, and I was really trying to find a way to help her through her disappointment.

When I woke up this morning I called the school. I spoke with the principal, and I tried to get an idea of why this would have happened, and I guess what I came away with was this. A small committee decided that since there were so many "enrichment" activities going on at this particular time at the school, they made an executive decision not to be involved with Invent Idaho this year. Huhhhh. Nice. So, all that I could really express to her was how disappointed we were, and that if it was a staffing issue, or a volunteer issue, I would have loved to have known, as I volunteer at the school on a regular basis, and I would have been MORE than willing to help coordinate the whole thing. But, I was not given that opportunity, and the PTO was not given that opportunity, and so it was left at that. Done.

So, the end of this story goes like this...... I have learned a lesson. I have learned never to "expect" something will just stay the same. Now I know that if we want to participate in something that is school related, I need to take charge and try to do everything I can to make sure my opinion is heard, and then maybe, just maybe, she will be able to invent away next year.