What a Wonderful World!: A Son's Graduation

Well...last weekend was high school graduation weekend for Salina high schools. That meant that my son, Jordan, would finally achieve his goal of graduating from high school and heading for college.

I'm so proud of my son! Not only did he graduate, but he was at or near the top 10% of his graduating class! He's not always the best at doing homework and studying, but when he has a project to do, he puts a lot of time and energy into making it perfect! Now, he'll be putting that time and energy into studying Architectural Engineering at K-State.

But as for last weekend...what a thrill! It was so emotional for me watching my son walk into the arena with his cap and gown. I really thought I would lose it. A father goes through so many emotions watching his son graduate and become a man. Pride is probably the most dominant emotion. But there's also the emotion of thinking back to when your son was a little boy and you were teaching him to ride a bike, catch a baseball or shoot a basket. I did those things with Jordan, but some of my favorite moments involved the theater. Jordan's first experience with the theater came back in 1996 when he and I were in the musical Oliver together. He was the youngest orphan in the cast at age 5. We also were in The Music Man together twice--once with me as the lead and the second time with him as the lead! He and I were theater buddies. Although I never pushed him into doing theater or music, he very quickly found his love for the same things I haved loved most of my life. Only he's so much better than I ever was! That's what makes me so proud! He's exceeded all my expectations in those areas, but mostly in being the best son a man could ever hope for!