Senior Year Schedule

Daya's schedule this year is basically all dance.

Daya dances at LaGuardia for three hours a day, 5 day a week.

Then she dances after school six days a week for a base total of 30 hours a week in dance..... and this is not including extra performance rehearsals etc. (I think it is too much but there is no stopping her.)

Oh and there's the mandatory monthly Move|NYC workshop that is alway on a Sunday, so every month Daya is going 2 weeks straight without a day off.

She is not taking a weekly day off from after-school dance this year because...................

She's only taking 2 academic classes, well she will be once she gets her schedule fixed.

She's dropping first period java because she really hates the teacher.

I tried to encourage her to maybe take something else instead, but she got mad at me and started yelling about how she was so stressed and exhausted last year**** and I'm putting so much pressure on her (I'm really not) and it's HER senior year not mine and just because I want her to, she's not going to.

SIGH.

I give up.

(***I do not think being in dance for a minimum of 30 hours a week and going half the month without a day off is going to help with being exhausted and stressed)

My wonderful friend Grace (who is Chinese) told me to tell Daya to be glad she doesn't have an Asian parent.... so I did and Daya told me I was being racist, until I said Grace told me to say that. 

Then she was just mad.

I reminded Daya this is the life SHE chose, this is what she signed up for, what she wanted.

Sharon (correctly) said one class at this point isn't going to make a difference, and she's right but that's not why I'm upset.

While I do prefer Daya takes advantage of her current educational opportunities, my major problem is how she communicates with me. Therapy has not helped.

I'm pretty sure Daya's spirit animal is a hornet.

So fine, she's taking 2 academic classes and I'm not saying anything.  

Whatever.  That's not even the issue.

Daya insists she has ADHD so last year I found her an ADHD- specialist therapist.

I remain neutral/I-don't-know on whether I think she has it or not.

Her teachers last year all thought no.

I don't see how it is compatible with her doing what she is doing.

It might be a factor though in how she perceives and processes emotions, and anger outbursts.

But I think she's just like that with me.

She's great with everyone else;  Daya is universally loved by everyone who works with her.

So maybe she's just being an intense angsty teenager.

It's too complex to sift through, knowing what might be a real issue and what is just the age.

In any case, she's at an age where she needs to learn to deal with her issues, whatever they may be.