Yep,

Lock me up.  Truth be told, I’ve been slipping upwards of $20,000.00 a year for the past 5 years to Iowa State University so my son could attend there.  My crime has a name. Its called tuition, room and board, books, and fees.  Best part, he’s graduating in May with a degree in Industrial Design.  Even better, he’s been accepted into the Master’s Degree program of Design.

Wait . . .

That means more criminal activity on my part.  Actually, its my wife who’s paycheck goes to pay for all that.    Just in case any law enforcement is paying attention . .. she did it.

In retrospect, it would have been cheaper to buy a home in Ames for him to live in, and rent the other rooms to his friends.  But its all worth it to his mother and me.  We’re so proud of the young man he’s become.  And what a year he’s had.  Gets married to a great young woman, gets his bachelors degree and heads off to Graduate school.  Now if he would just get a haircut and trim that beard.

What’s even more amazing to me is that he’s done this after being dropped on his head as a little kid.  No,  . .  really. When he was 6 years old he had an accident that landed him in Intensive Care for four days with a subdural hematoma.  It took some time for his brain to shift back to normal, and he still suffers headaches almost daily to this day.  He lost some memory of his early childhood, and had some pretty severe mood swings for a while.  But he toughed it out, and grew into an amazingly talent, sweet, gracious and funny young man with a great future ahead of him.

Can you tell I’m proud?  I only wish I had more to do with it.  I give most credit to Gailanne.  She is a mother’s mother.  Every child should have a parent (actually two) who throw themselves into their child rearing like she does.  She taught him to camp, ushered him thru Cub and Boy Scouts, helped him develop his artistic skills, and loved him unconditionally.  Me. . .  I taught him a few jokes, played a few video games with him, and took him golfing.  Not exactly heaving lifting, at least from my vantage point anyway.  Oh, and I taught him how to board op at KGRN.  At least that has helped him with his part-time college job at the NPR station in Ames.

So we’ll be there cheering and crying as he walks across that stage at Hilton Coliseum, and I’ll still be wondering when he’s gonna cut that hair.

Peace

TD