A Little Fatherly Bragging

My twin boys Steve and Brad graduated from high school last night. In fact they didn't just graduate from high school, they owned it!!! They both graduated with an honors diploma, and were both inducted into the National Honors Society, Distinguished Scholars, and placed in the top ten percent of their class.
More importantly, they are good people. Smart yes, but also sensitive, respectful, and caring, and I'm prouder than I could ever put into words.
Brad will go to Baldwin Wallace in the fall for music, majoring in pipe organ performance and music education. Steve will attend the College of Creative Studies in Detroit with a goal of working in movies on computer animation and CGI.
End of an era... and the beginning of another.

Contratulations to you and best wishes for success to both of them.

Congratulations!

Congrats BR! I bet you will miss them come this fall.

Wow! Congrats!

It really feels good when your children do well. Sounds like they are on a good path. Daddy won't take any credit for it, but he should.

Congrats! But i gotta ask... pipe organ is a degree you can get?

mndsm wrote: Congrats! But i gotta ask... pipe organ is a degree you can get?

Believe it or not, yes. From what I understand, Princeton U even offers it as part of their music program. The church in Princeton apparently has a pretty good organ. (I mainly listen to a classical music station and they broadcast performances from this church a few times a year)

And congrats!

Congrats, but now I have to take a dump on one little part of your post:

Steve might want to rethink the computer animation and CGI stuff, there aren't too many of those jobs available and when you do get one, it doesn't pay that well considering how hard they work you. One of my best friends tried that, ended up doing freelance graphic design after a few years working retail and he's still struggling with student debt. Some of his friends who did get animation jobs aren't any better off.

Sadly, one way in which the market is very good at eliminating inefficiencies is by finding out which things lots of people really like doing and then cutting their pay and increasing their hours until they can barely get by while doing it all the time. It's why I didn't go into game development or flight training myself.

mndsm wrote: Congrats! But i gotta ask... pipe organ is a degree you can get?

Yeah, they even have a Sacred major just for majoring in pipe organ with the intent of becoming a church organist or music director. My son likes prog, so I can't wait to hear the things he comes up with on a pipe organ!

GameboyRMH wrote: Congrats, but now I have to take a dump on one little part of your post: Steve might want to rethink the computer animation and CGI stuff, there aren't too many of those jobs available and when you do get one, it doesn't pay that well considering how hard they work you. One of my best friends tried that, ended up doing freelance graphic design after a few years working retail and he's still struggling with student debt. Some of his friends who did get animation jobs aren't any better off. Sadly, one way in which the market is very good at eliminating inefficiencies is by finding out which things lots of people really like doing and then cutting their pay and increasing their hours until they can barely get by while doing it all the time. It's why I didn't go into game development or flight training myself.

That's why he is going to this school in particular. They have a 100% graduate employment rate, and Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks, and others hire most of the grads. The average starting salary is $65k in his degree program, which I don't think is too bad.
Nevertheless, he has back ups. This school also has a great Industrial Design program, and they are one of the top schools in the country for automotive design, so he has options.

bravenrace wrote:

mndsm wrote: Congrats! But i gotta ask... pipe organ is a degree you can get?

Yeah, they even have a Sacred major just for majoring in pipe organ with the intent of becoming a church organist or music director. My son likes prog, so I can't wait to hear the things he comes up with on a pipe organ!

That's pretty rad. I love the sheer force behind a good old school pipe organ- there's SO much power there behind the noise... my old church (I grew up Catholic) had one that was such a beast, there was a few notes on the low end they had to avoid because it had a habit of breaking the stained glass.

Good job by all of you!

Congrats.

My son took "organ" as one of his electives at Hope College in his junior year. An alumni guy donated a $700,000 pipe organ for students to practice on.

The professor encouraged the students to open her up and see what she can do. We visited my son and he played it for us. He played it LOUDLY - it was cool - every pipe.

Parenting - You're doing it right!

Congratulations! There's nothing that feels better than seeing your kid succeed.

We have one with a very similar educational resume, he just finished his first year at College and maintained his outstanding average. He is also into music but his choice is the Saxophone.

He also changed his major, so don't worry too much about the first year.

We are also very proud parents.

Congratulations.....

Have you told THEM??? A fathers praise isn't always recognized, they should know you are proud of them... almost to the extent that they get embarrassed...