Well, here she is in all her glory! If you know Lian, you know this is a very “Lian” picture. She lives to ride. On this day, she was preparing to compete in the summer show, juggling three things at once. She competes about every four months, but rides several days a week. This is what keeps her sane as she completes her senior year of high school with a seriously hectic schedule. Here are some pics from her last couple of shows.

Before Covid, Lian was attending AISJ – the American school here in Johannesburg. As online learning became the norm, it was clear that AISJ was not meeting her needs. After a family meeting and a lot of research, Lian moved to the George Washington University online high school to complete high school. It was an excellent move. She has been able to take AP classes and participate in dual enrollment. With her long history of service learning, she was quickly elected president of the Learn 2 Serve club and joined the National Honor Society and the Spanish National Honor Society. MUN conferences are fully online now, so she is still doing several a year. In the middle of all of this, she started working at the stables. I guess you gotta have a place to release all that stress! Summer came along and because we couldn’t travel, she applied to attend the eight week online summer session at Stanford University and was accepted. She also spent a lot of time with our favorite charity, Food Forward. During the height of the pandemic, we weren’t allowed to volunteer. As things eased up, she was able to go back to in-person visits. Here are some pics from the welcome back day.

After a busy summer, she started her senior year this year. It’s pretty hard to believe and has really snuck up on us! True to form, she not only continued her busy schedule but added to it. She was elected President of the National Honor Society and has started teaching riding lessons at the stables and coaching younger children for the national championship league. Christmas was a longer break this year. Lian got to spend a good bit of time at the stables and we did a fun photo shoot with her favorite horse, Gatsby. We also took a family vacation to the Drakensberg mountains. She was able to go on a day ride with a guide through the mountains. It was really beautiful and she had a hard time leaving.

Last month, she turned 18. We told her that birthday was canceled, but for some reason she insists she is now 18…. She has applied to 16 universities, and we are very excited to see where she ends up. As Tom Petty said, “the waiting is the hardest part”. The next few weeks are going to be tough with random decisions popping up. She is also completing the first responder course for her Capstone Project this month. We may be traveling to the US in April for her to participate in a school-wide service project she has coordinated, as long as the school gives final approval for an in-person project. Then she has finals, AP exams, and finally – graduation!! I don’t know how she does it all and I don’t know how this has happened so quickly. I know she will be happy to have a break when it’s all done. It’s definitely going to be deserved.

We couldn’t be more proud of Lian. As you may have guessed, these parents are having a hard time facing the reality that our little girl has grown up and will be leaving us. Denial is the name of the game, for now! Once she has made a decision about university, I’ll let everyone know. As soon as I can face reality, that is!