Today is Brainy Bird’s high school graduation. WOW! Where did the time go? It feels surreal. The journey took us up and down at times, but ultimately Brainy Bird always found a way to move forward.
Brainy Bird started kindergarten at Hassler elementary school in Klein school district. The school recommended that he move to the first grade, but we refused to give up a year of his childhood. He had an incredible kindergarten teacher that had five kids of her own. The school started with hurricane Ike, which shut school down for more than two weeks, and left us without power. In the spring, shortly after his sixth birthday, Brainy Bird said good bye to his best friend and biggest fan when my mother left this world for a better place.
After kindergarten, we moved to Conroe ISD, where he attended first and second grade at Sue Broadway Elementary. He was so far ahead of the curriculum that school was a waste of time. There were even incidents where he knew more than his teacher. The summer after first grade, his parents divorced.
The summer after second grade, I made one of the best decisions that I ever made, I moved the boys to Tomball. Thanks to the less than stellar schools in Conroe, he had catching up to do in third grade. He loved the school though, and he loved being challenged.
By fourth grade, he not only caught up, he was first in his class. I will always remember the day he was sitting at the dinner table reading a book, and thought the book seemed a bit advanced for fourth grade. When I asked about it, he explained that it was for the gifted and talented program. I did realize he had been put into the gifted and talented program. I said to him that I thought they decided was not in the program. His response, “Yeah, they said that at first, but then they got to know me.”
Fourth grade was an amazing year.
Fifth grade was one of his most difficult years as he had a teacher that he simply could not get along with and a bully. The kids had gotten along so well at Canyon Pointe Elementary. When they got to fifth grade middle school, the elementary schools come together to one middle school. Certain kids from the other elementary school were focused on popularity, and to feel popular they needed kids to target and exclude. Brainy Bird fell on to the exclusion list. Middle school was hell for Brainy Bird.
Junior High was a bit better than middle school as Brainy Bird found a group of kids that he bonded with in his seventh grade algebra class. All of the kids that took Algebra in seventh grade would stick together through their high school years. A highlight of his senior year would be Calculus II, his last class with his seventh grade Algebra friends.
High school took Brainy Bird to a whole new world as he had computer science and engineering. His classes were challenging and intellectually rewarding. Brainy Bird became fully independent in his early years of high school, even taking on nearly all of the house hold chores including planning and cooking dinner.
I will always remember the little boy, shorter than me, that headed off to his first day of high school. Four years later, that little boy is six feet, four inches tall, and he is not a boy anymore. I am forever grateful for all that the teachers of Tomball Memorial High School did for Brainy Bird. He is prepared for college in every way. I have no doubt that he will knock their socks off in his four computer science classes and vector calculus his first semester of college.
In about five hours, he will walk the graduation stage, and I am sure I will be crying along side my best friend Yvonne and her husband Page. The two of them have had a front row seat to Brainy Bird’s adventures these past four years. I was happy when he chose them as his guests, as they truly appreciate his journey and all that he has accomplished.
I have said before that Brainy Bird is ready to spread his wings and take flight. In just 2 months and 2 weeks, he will be doing exactly that as a Gamecock at the University of South Carolina. I find it fitting that he chose a college with a mascot that is a bird.
Great adventure lies ahead, and I could not be more excited for him. Go Brainy Bird! Go Gamecocks!