Tuesday Night it was Camilla..Friday night it was Ryan's turn. My grandson graduated from West High looking all the world like a man ready to take on the rest of his life. As I watched him walk by during the procession I saw the big smile on his face. He had made it and was as proud of himself as the rest of the family. Ryan is actually my step-grandson. I started dationg his grandmother when he was nine. Just a little kid who spent most afternoons hanging with his gramma(he actually lived next door)which gave me the opportunity to get to know him better.

As he made his way to the stage and was seated with the rest of his class I drifted back to those days in the late 90's when I would go watch him play youth football. He was an amazing athlete even then. There wasn't a player in the league who could catch and take him down alone and it was apparent back then that he could go a long way should he decide to do so. I was amazed at his prowess, but I was getting to know "Buggie", as the family called him, the kid with the big smile and bright eyes. One thing that endeared us to each other was our love for dirtbikes and Motocross and over the years we got to explore that commonality.

I always say that my most fond memory with Ryan was at his first motocross race at LACR in Palmdale. I think he was about twelve. He took off out of teh gate, crashed in teh first turn and broke off his clutch lever. He Turned around and came back down to the line where I was still standing and said "Pa! My clutch is broken"! I told him "Screw your clutch..GO"! He showed his famous ability to overcome adversity that day and charged back to fifth place after having been WAY behind. He had his share of adversity at West too. He has overcome many struggles there, some brought on by the normal teenaged inattention, some from other directions, but as he walked across that stage I felt a great sense of relief that the struggles of this phase of his life were at an end.

After the ceremony we did all the requisite family photo stuff. It was obvious that Ryan was toked. He is a very upbeat kid, but is still relatively quiet and unemotional in most situations. You don't have conversations with him the way you do with most people. He is more a listener than a talker. A grunt in 'G' signifies an affirmative response, a grunt in 'C' flat a negative..A raise of one eyebrow is a query and both eyebrows a sign of general agreement or understanding, but at the end, there is always the "I Love You, Pa" and "Thanx". I couldn't help but smile at all the talking and running around he was doing outside the Civic. It was the best!

He will now head off to Fresno State to fulfill his scholarship there and enter the next big phase of his life. I could not be more proud! The family are all excited to see him off to his new life, but there is that part of me that will miss "Buggie". I would like to think that I have been a guiding influence in his life as I have always been there in times of confusion and confidence and moral issues. All I have ever wanted was for him to be happy at whatever he was doing and give whatever he was doing everything he had. So far he has listened to at least some of my advice!

This new place in his life will not be an easy one. It will be filled with challenges such as he has never known before, but I think he is up to it. There is no stronger support group in the world than his family and close friends. There are no bandwagon riders in that group. We all want the best for him, nomatter where that leads. Good luck, Son and chin up! I love you..Pa!