I don't even know where to begin but in short, Thomas was chosen as 3d chair , 1sr violin of the big kids(high school)Philharmonic Orchestra with the Bangor Symphony Orchestra. He wanted so badly to unseat the first chair, Liz(senior in high school with 11 years under her belt) or at least unseat the co concertmaster(junior in high school with a little over 10 years experience) but he did so well they put him in 3d. He was sooo happy, it took that little sting away from not getting his goal. Heck, being the youngest(13 and in 8th grade) is quite a nice little treat and he realizes that now. He was chosen to play in a trio a couple hours away in Camden Maine and chosen to play side by side the 3d chair in the professional Bangor Symphony Orchestra as well as in the advanced chamber group. All this within the past 3 weeks. I gotta tell ya, we are homeschooling this one year and he wants to go back to brick and mortar school next year because he misses his friends so much. But we did homeschooling this one year because now that he has a little spare time, he can play his second love...baseball, as well as spend more time practicing without rushing and so on. 

He was so happy he picked up my fathers tune, Russian Fanstasia #2 a couple days ago and taught himself it. Notice how good his wrist and knuckles are becoming now. Athough a couple notes are off, it was just a fun song to play and I obliged his great mood.