My nephew rules

Boy, what a crazy/busy couple of weeks, from working around the house and running around, it seems like the last 15-18 days have been both busy and tedious. I lost a bunch of photos from our reclamation of Dinner With Friends. Chris and Marty, and Jeremy and Amy visited last Saturday for empanadas, paella, house-made margaritas and a generally classic sense of get-together-good-timeness. Sadly, I have no photographic evidence of ANY of it. Trust me, the paella Kerry made was tasty.

What I do have for everyone is, quite possibly, one of the best stories I can tell. As previously mentioned here, nephew Sam P. graduated high school. He was valedictorian of his class. Here he is on stage before his speech. I found the lighting interesting, if not entirely appropriate.

The (young) man earned, through years of hard work and sacrifice hardly any of us will ever know — and I’ll leave it at that, out of the respect he so richly deserves, a full-ride scholarship to Northwestern, one of the premier degree-granting higher learning institutions on the planet. What follows shortly is his high school profile from a publication highlighting the school’s graduates. It includes a list of scholarships, awards, school activities, etc. I remember sitting at my high school commencements, reading the program and the very same litany of accomplishments from the top of the class kids, this chick going to West Point, a guy headed to MIT, etc. and I sat there thinking, wow, these guys worked their asses off. I was always impressed with those cats. And now, a member, the first actually, of our family to blow out some serious grades and scholarships is on his way to Northwestern. I don’t think I’ve ever been so proud of any one person in my life.

Award and Distinctions Earned:
Saginaw Arts and Sciences Academy: Valedictorian and Prom King; Saginaw News Member of 2006 Academic Dream Team; Michigan Scholar Recognition, Optimist Club of Saginaw; Youth Appreciation Day Honoree; National Society of High School Scholars; Presidential Educational Awards Program Honoree for Academic Excellence; WNEM-TV5 honoree for “The Best of The Class of 2006; Who’s Who Among American High School Students; U.S. Acheivement Academy All American Scholar.
Membership in School Clubs and Community Organizations: Student Council President 2004-2006), National Honor Society, Model United Nations, Destination Imagination, Ultimate Frisbee, Computer Gaming Club, F.I.R.S.T Robitcs, Fall/Spring theatrical productions.
Volunteer and Work Experience: Michigan Community Blood Centers (blood drive coordinator), Pit and Balcony Theatre Company (light operator and co-designer), Bay City Players (volunteer youth director), State Theatre (light/sound operator), Temple Theatre (light/sound operator), United Way “Make A Difference/Spring Into Service” Day and United Way “Adopt-A-Family.”

Scholarships:
Northwestern University, $126,360 for academic achievement, outstanding community service and financial need; DePauw University, annual fund scholarship, $53,200; Bonner Scholarship, $8,400; Trustee’s Award, $44,000; Ruth Clark and Philip Holton Memorial Scholarship, $4,000; Central Michigan University outstanding student award, $12,000; Superior Scholar Award, $5,000; Anderson-Bastow Academic Achievement Scholarship, $30,000; Scholarships from other organizations include: Catherine Jean MacDonald Fine Arts Scholarship, $1,100 for academic achievement and outstanding community service as a MI resident with family ties to the MEA; Michigan Elks Foundation “Most Valuable Student” state scholarship, $1,000 for academic achievement and community service; Best Buy Children’s Foundation Scholarship, $2,000; Michigan Merit Scholarship, $2,500.

Here is a young man, the son of a single father, with no mom presence, really, to speak of. Growing up, he had no idea what a life of privilege was like. He had himself, his friends and his dad

a guy who probably scratched his head one too many times trying to figure out how in the fuck he’s going to pay for this kid’s college education. So, he did what a lot of parents do, he preached good grades and study habits. And it worked. The kid plowed through courses, stayed clean and employed a focus seen mainly in rebel snipers. Now, I have this nephew, who in about two and a half months will leave the insular, boring and somewhat culturally arid region of mid-Michigan, where the foul stench of belching factories and equally acrid aroma of despair-based ain’t-nothing-changing-around-here-but-the-seasons mentality rules with a feces-caked fist, for Chicago, where he’ll study, grow and hopefully mature under the watch of the denizens of a world-class city. I worry about him, about what he’ll learn and how he’ll grow. He’ll lose his mind a couple of times in his 20s, only to build it back up, a la Steve Austin, faster, stronger, and steel trap-like. I look at this nephew of mine and I regenerate in me a customized, sort of hybrid ersatz sense of hope, power-washing off the grime and sludge that sometimes accumulates by your mid-to-getting-kinda-late 30s. I love what he’s accomplished. I love telling a summarized version of his story. I love the look on the face of people who understand the magnitude, when I tell them my nephew got a full ride to Northfuckingwestern. I’ve never been happier for anyone in my life than that kid. But, really, who am I fooling? He’s 18 and headed to Chicago. He’s not exactly a kid anymore.