“ I can’t tell you how proud I am of the young man that stood before me. ”
I was in the kitchen one day last week and Dan came in. We discussed our work schedules and so forth and then he just stood there for a moment with a thoughtful look on his face. So I said “What?” He replied that the next day was his one-year anniversary from Eckerd Academy. I was flooded with a million emotions and thoughts and didn’t know what to say, so I replied with “Wow.”
Wow that it had been a year. Wow that he remembered the date. Wow what a road we’d been on. I couldn’t help but think that a 1½ years ago, we wouldn’t have even been having a conversation. I looked at him and remembered the angry, hurt and confused kid that he had been. I can’t tell you how proud I am of the young man that stood before me.
Dan is planning to return to his original high school for his last semester. He wants to graduate from there, but largely he says he wants to let them see what he has become. He knows that many of the faculty had written him off, and wants to show them that a kid can turn around.
Dan has decided on a college for next year and is very excited about it. Before Eckerd, it was doubtful that he’d ever graduate from high school, much less go to college.
He got a job, and has never missed a day or been late. I overheard his boss the other day thanking him for always being the one they can depend on.
Dan and three of his best friends have a band. They have gone into the studio recently to begin getting some of their music onto a CD he will put out.
As for friends, he has many. I know them all and like them. He talked one kid into going to his parents and getting help for a drug problem, another to ask for help with emotional problems.
Sending him to Eckerd was by far the hardest thing I’ve ever done and by far the best. Dan learned so much in his short time there and it was exactly what he needed. The people there taught him to like himself and have confidence. They taught him that he could succeed. I think he realized that his life would be what he made of it.
He also told me before he left that he loved me for having sent him there and was proud that I had been strong enough to do it.
Dan has actually taught me a few things about settling matters by talking them out…even if it took all night until we came to an agreement or compromise.
Without Eckerd, he would not have found his way to becoming the man he is and will be. I am so very proud of what he has done and the way he has chosen to live his life. He is a success.
