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Last week a letter came home from the Cheese Eater's school.  It was addressed "To the Parents of...".  As a parent, you know that when an "official" letter like that comes home--something's up.  We figured it was too early in the school year for anything to be wrong.  Besides, we had asked the Cheese Eater every single day for the last month how his day was, always receiving the repetitive answer of, "Good!"  We trusted our son and figured if it was anything too negative, we would have heard something about it before now.

The letter read:

Dear Parents:

Your child has been selected to receive a special award at our school assembly.  I would like to invite you to join your child in receiving this honor. 

Well, you can just imagine how pumped I was to open a letter like this!  Only one month into the school year and our little guy was already winning awards!  I called the Golfer at work to read him the letter.

"That's great!  So what's it for?" he asked me.

"Um, well, I'm not sure.  The letter doesn't say." 

I looked over at the Cheese Eater, who was busy enjoying his after-school snack and catching up with Scooby Doo. 

"Buddy?  Do you know what the award that you won is for?"

"What reward?"

"Not 'reward', award," I said again.

"What award?"

I turned back to the phone.  "He doesn't have a clue.  Guess we'll find out at the assembly."

So there we sat last Friday.  With cameras poised and ready, parents lined the school's mini-auditorium awaiting to hear what award there bright, young kindergartners had earned.  The Bald-Headed Monkey sitting proudly next to his big brother, quietly munched on a granola bar, pointed to the Cheese Eater telling the man next to him, "That's my brother."  Yes, we were all very excited.

There were to be a total of four different awards given.  The first awards were given for Effort.  Six children, one from each kindergarten class, we given the award for "always trying their best."  Each student confidently walked up to the podium to receive their certificate and coupon for a free In-n-Out burger.  The Cheese Eater's name wasn't called. 

The next award was given in the area of Scholarship.  As the principal explained, this award was given for lots of reasons.  "Maybe you're a good reader, or writing, or good in math."  Again, six names were called, but the Cheese Eater wasn't one of them.

At this point the Cheese Eater started to tear up and put his face in his hands.  He has watched two of his classmates go up and receive their award, and suddenly he was afraid that he wasn't going to get one.

"What's wrong, Buddy?" I asked him as I put my arm around him.

"Am I not getting a reward today?"

"Yes, of course you are.  They aren't done handing them out yet.  Just hang in there.  Your turn is coming."

Turns out, third times a charm.  The next award was given for Outstanding Citizenship.  Again, the principal explained that citizenship was something that they had really been working on as a school.  To be an outstanding citizen meant that you do things to make the community around you a better place.  You are considerate of others, you are polite, you use your manners, etc. 

When the Cheese Eater's name was called for Outstanding Citizenship, I tried my best not to tear up while looking through my camera lens.  Not to discount the other awards (the final award given was for Responsibility,) but in my humble opinion, Outstanding Citizen was the best one.  I was so proud that my young son had been recognized as being a kind and considerate person.  To know that when he is out in the world without his parents that he is doing things to make his community better?  Well, there isn't a greater compliment as a parent. 

I guess in a way, maybe the Cheese Eater's award was really an award for our whole family.  And every time I look at it tapped up on our refrigerator, I'm reminded that maybe I'm doing something right after all.

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