Two Kids Almost Grown

It was just wonderful. We drove to the Stanford Shopping Center last early evening to buy Michael some new work shoes at Macy's. We wandered through the empty store, found the shoes and thought it was too beautiful to just rush home. We strolled through Tommy Bahama's before having a light dinner at Max's Opera Cafe.

That's when it happened. After the waiter brought us our appetizers, he asked, "Is your name **** and did you work at ***** School?" YES! Well, I am Adam ******. OMG! This was a kid who spent a lot of time in my office. He was the middle kid in his family and very rambunctious. He and his sister played piano and his brother learned violin. I loved their parents as they were middle class, hard working and struggled financially to keep their children in the school.

We hugged. I learned he was on his way to college as a musical theatre major, his brother was doing well at a college in the East and his sister was going to be a senior in high school. I remember her mother being pregnant with her. Where has the time gone?

Adam had great presence on a stage, could sing and dance like a pro and just had that "it" factor. He loved working at Max's as the waiters would take turns throughout the dinner service to sing accompanied by a pianist. We were too early so we miss any singing but my heart sang knowing that the music teacher I hired taught him how to sing well. I know the world will know about him one day.

Then, he asked if we had noticed a blond guy who had been sitting at the next table? I had not been facing that direction but Michael said he noticed that he kept looking at us. Well, he was another kid from the school, Will. He suddenly reappeared and, oh my, he looked the same just a bit taller! I learned that he will be starting MIT next month and still played violin.  Though he is personally worth at least a billion dollars, he was there to borrow Adam's credit card as he had left his stuff at home and almost out of gas. He was the favorite of all the teachers. Polite. Kind. A great student but he had a mom who was very protective. Security was her prime issue, which we all thought was a little extreme. It wasn't until later when his grandfather's business was bombed that I understood that there were people out there who might want to hurt her son. He did escape her by boarding at a private high school and now going far away to college.

It so lifted me to see where these kids were in life, learning their college goals and looking them in their eyes and seeing the little kids I met when they were four-years old.