signs of progress or maturity, take your pick whose

I get the privilege of working in schools, though not as a teacher of kids. I teach wanna be teachers -- yes, I supervise those student teachers you loved to give grief to during your own formative years in jr. high and high school.

This year, I asked to be assigned to my son's high school BECAUSE IT IS FIVE MINUTES AWAY. I admit, I had my worries. I KNOW how important space is to a teenager, and I KNEW he would not be thrilled with the prospect. So, we seemed to enter a truce about it sometime after the streaking incident, or as I now lovingly refer to it as, THE OFFICIAL ACT OF REBELLION. (I'm sure this is not the only one, but I'm happy in my world of make-believe, so please, let it be for now.)

Here is an actual conversation that took place today when we by chance ran into each other on the school stairwell:

Son: Hey, (calls me by my given name).

Me: Hey.

Progress by son.

Conversation later as I met him in the front foyer after school:

Me (trying to be sensitive): The car is up the hill in the parking lot. We can walk up there together, or you can meet me.

Son: (No response, but he takes a parallel walkway until we are forced to meet. I then walk several steps behind him until he begins, with a familiar tease in his voice): I can go get the car and pick you up here. What kid walks with his mom from the school to the car?

Me: I thought you were a little more mature than most kids.

Son: (Silence. But when we get to the crosswalk to the parking lot, he has one of his friends acknowledge my presence. They then take a circuitous route through the parking lot as I make a straight path to our vehicle.)

Progress by mom.