The Evolution of My Son, Andrew

His initials are ANGL. It suits him to be an angel because he cares about people. 

He had a happy personality as a kid. As a child, he showed his emotions on his face. I used to call him "puppy dog" when he felt sad because his eyebrows would point upward and coupled with pathetic looking big brown eyes, he looked like a sad little puppy.

He started drawing at three. His fascination with Pokemon led him to put a Pokemon card next to his paper and draw what he saw. Amazement struck me when my little three year old  produced at least 20 drawings in crayon that each looked like their respective cards. I thought he would be an artist. 

My little dare-devil artist who loved facts and always wanted to know the truth. He had no fear when he jumped off the coffee table and landed in my arms at one year old, or at three when he sped on his little pink bike on the sidewalk, going like a bat out of hell, and purposely rammed a wooden beam that threw him from his bike and made him cry, or at four when he jumped to the floor from the top bunk of his bed (just because,) and screamed bloody murder.

He got his first "real" skateboard for his sixth birthday. He positioned his ramp so that he landed on the grass, then he skated outside for hours whether the temperature felt hot or cold. When I think about his skateboarding skills then and now there's no comparison. He couldn't do an Ollie when he got his first board but he watched Tony Hawk's Trick Tips and practiced until he could. Now, he can do many tricks on his board. 

As a young kid,  if he couldn't be found outside skating he either sat in front of the TV watching his Tony Hawk video or played with his tech decks. He must have had at least 50 of them. He'd take them apart and change their wheels. If a tech deck didn't appear in his hand, he made whatever he held (if anything!) into a skateboard and did tricks with his fingers complete with sound effects!

He did well in school. His beautiful penmanship and detailed pictures on his assignments caused awe in his teachers and they would often write something like "Wow!" on his work. He never waited until the last minute to do anything. When given an assignment, he usually started working on it that day.

He began making movies in 9th grade with my little Canon digital camera. It surprised me that he could make good videos from a camera that didn't have video as its main feature. Sometimes he filmed his friends doing tricks at the skate park. Whether making a movie or filming skateboarders, he knew how to make videos because over the years he had filmed himself skateboarding many times. 

I promised to send him to Camp Woodward in California the summer before his senior year of high school. He dreamed of going to that skateboard camp and wanted to one day be a professional skater. Many times after skating he came home bummed because he didn't land a trick. When he filmed movies, he always came home happy and displayed excitement and anticipation to see the outcome. He had a natural talent for filming. His endless film ideas gave him energy, yet he wanted to be a pro skater and gave all he had to be something that required a lot of natural skill and some luck. Skateboarding didn't come naturally to him but he wanted to do it more than anything.

He chose to get a nice camera instead of going to Camp Woodward in 2011 because a camera would last longer than a week at camp. Also, he decided not to pursue becoming a pro skateboarder. He knew he had a talent in film that he didn't have in skateboarding. Ultimately, he decided to pursue filming pro skaters, and to one day become a director.

He officially graduated from high school six days ago on May 20, 2012. His huge accomplishment of completing 12 years of school causes me to feel proud of him.

• He won 1st place in a writing contest in 2nd grade with his piece called "My First Loose Tooth."
• KC Wolf (The Chiefs mascot) honored him at a school assembly in 4th grade when he won the "Three Dairy a Day" contest with his picture that depicted a Chiefs football player running with a carton of milk instead of a football.
• The Olathe Daily News mentioned him in their newspaper when he drew the ad that won their contest in 6th grade.
• He also won the top youth bowler award at the Olathe Lanes bowling alley that year.
• From 7th to 9th grade, Chisholm Trail Junior High honored him each year with academic awards for having a high GPA.
• Olathe Northwest High School honored him in the 10th and 11th grades with high GPA academic awards.
• In 10th grade his e-Comm team won 1st place in video for the Martin Luther King "Only Light, Only Love" commemoration.
• The varsity bowling team accepted him for two years and he lettered in the sport in 11th grade.
• He won 2nd place in the late night Call of Duty competition at Best Buy and received a copy of the game.
• In 12th grade, at the Student Television Network (STN) national conference in Dallas, TX, he won two awards for his documentary, "Freeling" .
• At STN, his e-Comm team also won 2nd place for their music video.
• Another award at STN said his e-Comm team won 1st place for their "sweet sixteen" film.
• He received a 1st place award for "Freeling" at the eMagine Film Festival in Kansas.
• Lastly, at the end of 12th grade, and just before graduation, he learned he won the opportunity to fly to LA to be a part of the film crew for the ATandT and Wayfinder.tv production of "On The Road With Paul Rodriguez" (a pro skateboarder.) He flew to LA the day before the graduation and began working with Paul and the crew shortly thereafter. He never gave up on having a dream and now he's living it.

Andrew is no stranger to receiving awards. It seems like he's good at whatever he touches whether it's art, school work, bowling, playing the trumpet, working at Rock Band, doing his best in Call of Duty, or making films. I'm excited to see where his future leads.