"Kid, You'll Move Mountains" - Dr. Seuss

I will warn you, our oldest is graduating from college in a couple of weeks and I may appear I am going off my rare disease track a tiny bit as this approaches. I will remind you though that this kid is a rare kiddo in his own rite, fighting COPD as a child and a rare sibling. He is the one whose battle brought me all the way to the White House and the one who experienced my firsts as a mom. Today, this young man is built from all of this and so much more. He is truly a success story of fighting through adversity. So, please forgive this post while I brag about him...

I was due May 7, 2001 and as someone who often overreacts when I started having contractions on April 13th, I was sure that it was nothing. I had made myself a promise I would not get everyone's hopes up of meeting our little one until we were sure. That morning I told my husband just to go to work, that we were not having a baby three and half weeks early and that he would be my first call should anything change. Our son was born at 11:31 pm April 13th and that was the first time he proved me wrong.

As a toddler when he was developing a vocabulary his developed exceptionally fast. He was our first so we weren't really sure about any of this. I would take him to the library and other moms would ask his age and when I responded they were shocked. It didn't really hit me until his pediatrician spoke to me about it. He told me that our son was very advanced for his age and that I was going to have to remember, now and as he got older, that even though he could comprehend words and vocalize things beyond his years it did not mean that he was necessarily ready for things beyond his age. It was then that we started to wonder how advanced he was.

After his brother was born we put him in a Montessori-type of preschool a couple days a week for a couple hours for socialization more than anything. This class was small and the teacher was amazing. She too pulled me aside and suggested that we begin looking for a private school for him. She said that there was no way a public school was going to challenge him academically.

In public school it was either kindergarten or first grade where there was talk of him skipping a grade, but we declined remembering the words of the pediatrician and not wanting him to be a year younger than his peers in everything. We had one teacher corner me about not having him spend so much time in books at home and the mama bear in me came out. At the time he was in cub scouts, t-ball and church activities along with playing with neighborhood and school friends. Sure, sometimes he would look at books at home, but he was well-rounded and never pressured by us to spend more time in books.

By high school he had achieved high grades all through and took quite a few AP classes. I know that the preschool teacher said that public schools would not challenge him, but I do not think she took into account how he would advocate for himself to make the most of the opportunities available to him.

And then came college, he attends the university in the onsie from his newborn picture. To say that he has accepted every challenge is an understatement. Michael Phelps once said,"If you want to be the best, you have to do things other people aren't willing to do." and that is what this child of ours has done. My husband and I met attending the same school and I can tell you we did not take advantage of half the opportunities he has (or study half as much...). He finds opportunities to make connections within his field of study and follows through with experiences that come from them. His major is kinesiology and to him, I can tell you it is really a calling - the empathy and compassion he already has for his patients is seen and heard as he tells us of his time spent with them.

Others see this too. In a few short days he will speak at the graduation ceremony for his major. He was chosen, I believe, not necessarily because of his grades, though they are very good, but because he embodies the whole package of what they are looking for in students working their way through this program. As he starts his gap year and prepares for his doctorate his is exploring opportunities in his new home city/state. He applied for three jobs in three different environments and got offers from all three. He has also been reaching out to the grad schools/doctorate programs he is most interested in and speaking with people who are actively involved in these decisions.

I often say to my mom or my husband that I want to be our son when I grow up. He has so much drive and ambition. The word that I use to describe him that I think I and so many others lack is balance. He has many strengths, many of us do, but very few of us can balance them the way he does. When I started my social media presence it was about my youngest and his struggles with Addison's and I would use #igavebirthtomyhero - but then I look at all our older son has also gone through and all that he is doing and I had to change it to #igavebirthtomyheroes