I was a late bloomer. I did not return to school until 12 years after I graduated from HS. I worked to support a family while my wife went on to earn her degree in 1994. I was sitting around chatting with my bosses and I threw out the idea that I might want to return to school. He was excited and he tried to steer me towards a business degree. Little did I know, days later he would be dead in an attempted robbery at one of our businesses. A couple months later, I returned to school and my first day back was September 11, 2001. Yes, the 9-11.
Fast forward 5 years and an associates degree and a bachelors degree later and here I sit in my air conditioned office writing and getting paid to do it. Life couldn't be any better. Well it did get better. On Saturday (6-16) we held my 18 yo son's graduation reception. Food for days - 3 turkeys, 2 hams, one huge beef roast, several large pots of chile stew and fresh Indian Oven Bread and one band later and I'm tired. I wanted to return to school and get my bachelors degree before my son did and now he is planning to head to college in the fall knowing that if both his Native American parents can finish, then so can he.
After the food had been served, we surprised our son by hiring his favorite band - Holiday Sail to play for a couple of hours. Lo and behold, when he and his friends found out that THE Holiday Sail was playing just for them, we became the coolest parents on EARTH! Usually, the parents of graduates around here hire (insert local country band here!) and the adults enjoy the music. Well, we figured this was not OUR celebration, but our sons party. So instead of getting a band most of the older ADULTS could enjoy, we went with music he would like and we were a hit with all the kids. They danced and even 'moshed' a few times, and it turned out to be the best party of all the graduation parties. All the kids thanked us for hiring a band they could enjoy and we fed the band and now they want to play for all of our parties. They left with loaves of Indian Bread and containers of food. That was our good deed - feeding starving musicians.
With our son planning to move into Albuquerque to go to school, we have a ton of free time on our hands. My wife wants to go to law school (she the Laguna Pueblo probation boss) and I couldn't think of a better plan. Hopefully we raised our son right and he will succeed, but how could he not? We've laid the groundwork and he knows he's not the first to attend college, but he knows that we expect him to finish college and move on to bigger and better things. Just like his parents.
The best part of the night - having our son throw his arms around us and tell us we are the greatest parents in the world. Check out HOLIDAY SAIL - a great young band from Albuquerque and the Guitar player is Dine'. Anyone need a story?
