From River News to a High School Graduate

Mackenzie Presta Graduation Party Picture With Cousins – Take One:

Mackenzie Presta Graduation Party Picture With Cousins – Take Two

(Ian, a little less enthusiasm please):

In early July, 1994, shortly after I earned a business degree from Ohio State, I was in the middle of a 119 mile river trip on the Edisto River in South Carolina with three other counselors and a group of pretty tough boys known as the Korees (I assure you they were no relationship to the Bloods or the Crips, as much as they tried to pretend otherwise).  I was standing along the bank of the river at a small park where we had stopped to re-fill our water jugs and catch a breath.  One of the counselors went to use a pay phone (pre-cell phone days) to call in to camp and let them know we were doing OK.  When he returned, he let me know I was an uncle for the first time.  My sister Kim had given birth to my niece Mackenzie.

Last weekend the boys and I went to Erie, PA with our Ohio family to celebrate Mackenzie’s high school graduation.  I don’t know what I found harder to believe, that my niece was suddenly a high school graduate, or that along the way I helped create two additional cousins for her.  Either way, I was reminded how fast time flies by.  That my own two little boys will one day be posing for graduation pictures.

In a sort of life moves in circles way, Mackenzie will be continuing her education at Ohio State later this year.  She has grown into a wonderful young lady.  I am proud of her.  I am also proud of the job my sister has done as a parent.  Though there have been challenges over the past 18 years, she has never neglected her obligation as a parent.  In a day when abandoning parental responsibilities to make life a bit easier has become as routine as trimming a few items from the grocery list to meet the budget, my sister has clung tightly to her role of mom.

Although it is my dad’s example as a father that guides me as a dad most days, my sister serves as a great inspiration and reminder this Father’s Day that I have no more influential role in life than that of being a dad. 

Many of the t-shirts I’ve collected over the years have found their way to Goodwill.  I have proudly held onto this one, though, as the boys who made the shirt after our trip insisted on including the uncle after my name to capture just how proud I was, and many of them as well, of how our trip was marked by some awesome news.

Mackenzie graduation party slideshow