A Good Season

A good friend of mine mentioned to me last week how her son was having a "good season" with graduations from high school and seminary and other worthy accomplishments, so I thought that this post could be all about Christian's "good season."  He has accomplished a great deal in the past year and we are so proud of him.  By the way, I framed the above picture and placed it next to the senior pictures of Emily, Lauren, Matthew and Marie, and when he looked up and saw his picture all lined up with the others, all he had to say was, "that's weird."  I guess he thinks he needs to "be gone" to have his picture in such a place of honor.

So on to the list of his recent accomplishments -- they all actually represent a culmination of many months/years of hard work and effort:  

Scholarship Recipient x 3: HCSC, Bankhead, and PTSO.  All that scholarship money will give him a great start to his college career.

Heidelberg High School Graduation with Honors.  He was one of the few students that had a GPA above 3.8 as well as completion of at least four AP classes.  Way to go, Christian!  HHS does an incredible job of honoring their graduates:  Baccalaureate at the Heiliggeist Kirche, Graduation in the Stadthalle (with fanfare and fireworks!), and then a three-hour cruise along the Neckar River (and MORE fireworks!).  I was impressed. 

Seminary Graduation: Four years, early morning. That's an accomplishment!  Christian was also one of the final youth speakers at the graduation last Sunday. He is an amazingly excellent speaker. The theme of his talk was on how good habits can keep us on the right path.  He incorporated examples from all of his past seminary teachers -- from devotionals and heartfelt testimony to routinely providing food for the students! I think I need a copy of that talk (but I'm pretty sure it was just a few notes and came mostly extemporaneously).

Duty to God Award -- just in the nick of time!  Christian memorized one last scripture and had his final interview with the bishop this week.   Good job, Christian.  This was a nice way to culminate your accomplishments and put the final touches on your "good season."  We look forward to many more "good seasons" to come.

Here he is with three other Bankhead Scholarship recipients

And a couple of graduation pics:

Soon he and Taylor will be off  to more adventures at BYU! 

We are all so proud of you Christian. And we're going to miss you . . . I think you might even miss us too!