爱生活
爱生活
对儿子来说，我知道自己不是一个合格的妈妈。
他在学校里的事情和学习我从来没有管过。我只是不停地在他耳边唠叨，要好好学习多参加各种课外活动。我苦口婆心给他讲我的经验和教训，以期他少走弯路。我以为我唠叨多了，他就能听进去我说的话，他就会变得越来越好。其实，我的唠叨把他推地离我越来越远。等我想和他一起做一些事情的时候，他根本就不愿意和我在一起花费时间。意识到这一点，我的伤心无与伦比。
他变成一个和我所期待的完全相反的人。他是一个小心敏感的宅男，他有一颗倔强而迷茫的心。甚至于从外表，他都要反抗到底。于是，我不得不慢慢接受一个满头乱发须着胡子的年轻人。
我多么希望，到这时候，我意识到有关言传身教的古训有多么智慧，知道spend quality time的说法有多重要，还不为时太晚。
他马上要高中毕业， S A T的考试成绩我觉得并不理想，但是他只考了一次就坚决不再考第二次。
我告诉他，我知道他是一个聪明的孩子，我只是希望他能发挥自己最大的潜能。可是他告诉我，他知道自己在做什么，对他来说，快乐才是最重要的。哪怕以后当个中学老师，他只要自己快乐就好。
我没有他的勇气，不能确定简单的生活就能让我快乐。而他，也许还太年轻，以后想法会改变。
我想，他其实，还有大把的时间可以奢侈浪费，而我需要平静下自己四十多岁的一颗心，对他充满耐心和信心。
也许，到这里，我就该停下。不过，我想说，父母真的不一定比孩子正确。
我要承认，到今晚之前，我还不知道具体什么是national merit schalorship。因为儿子收到村里的一封信，请他去参加例会，我才查找了相关的内容。我知道，这对很多华人来说，根本不算一回事，但是，回想这两三年来发生在我和儿子之间的争执和分歧，我要为儿子感到骄傲。
下面的内容是才wiki来的，我不能确定内容都对。
This program is a competition for recognition and merit-based scholarships awarded by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), a non-profit organization. To participate, a student must take the PSAT/NMSQT in a specified year as a high school student planning to enroll in college and must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident.
Here's how the National Merit scholars are selected out of all the high school seniors in the U.S.:
1.5 million entrants. The National Merit scholarship program uses the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQ) test to screen more than 1.5 million entrants.
50,000 high scorers.
Each year, a qualifying score is determined to select the top 50,000 highest scorers on the PSAT, which is usually taken at the beginning of a student's junior year. These students have the opportunity to have their scores sent to two colleges or universities of their choice by the NMSC.
16,000 semifinalists. Among those 50,000 students, 34,000 are designated "Commended Students," and the remaining 16,000 are named National Merit semifinalists. They are the highest scoring entrants in each state and will receive application materials to apply for National Merit Scholarships.
15,000 finalists. Next, semifinalists who meet academic and other requirements advance to Finalist standing. All National Merit Scholarship winners are selected from this group.
8,200 Merit Scholarship winners. The NMSC selects 8,200 Merit Scholars winners who will receive one of three types of scholarships: National Merit scholarships, corporate-sponsored scholarships, or college-sponsored scholarships.
1,500 special scholarships. Scholarships provided by corporate sponsors are also awarded to students who qualified as high scorers but weren't selected as finalists。
The scholarship program was started in 1955 and has recognized 3 million students and provided more than 335,000 scholarships worth more than $1.3 billion.
The program has been very successful in achieving its goal to honor and encourage academically talented high school students.
For today's high school students, it's important to develop a well-rounded profile: Challenging course work, good grades and achievements in extracurricular activities may come into play even more than SAT scores.
如果是Finalist,就有希望拿到奖学金。我家两个全拿到奖学金的。