When my son started school, one of his “teachers” suggested that we teach him to use a keyboard because she didn’t have any confidence that he’d ever learn to write with a pencil.

He was little and hyper and had a lot of things going on in his world and she couldn’t see his potential.

We, and I’m looking for the most gentle of words here….let’s see….oh!! …”demurred”….we demurred…and the following year, after a lot of work, and, what his hero of a teacher described as “crocodile tears”, Isaac was a writer.

It’s hard for a little guy to sit and do the painful things like holding a pencil against a piece of paper, trying to make sense of motionlessness for the sake of communication, learning to make the loops and straight lines that allow us to understand what someone else is thinking.

When you waited until you were between 4 and 5 to start talking, sitting and holding a pencil is the worst kind of torture.

That’s hard….physically hard….but he did it.

Tonight, Isaac graduates from high school.

I never had any doubts that we’d see this day.

It’s funny how all that goes.

Things could have taken a different turn if we were willing to listen to some of the “experts” who’ve given advice and prescriptions along the way.

Things could have been different.

It hasn’t really stopped being a “hold your pencil against the paper” kind of discomfort….but, really, it’s like that for all of us.

Growing up is uncomfortable.

Joni Mitchell had an album a while back called “Chalk Mark in a Rainstorm”….seeing the chalk on the stoop and the drawing that the little guys did made me think of it again after a bunch of years.

We have these moments that are important, like a graduation, and then we move on to the next chapter.

It’s all just marks before the rain….a pretty picture that time washes away and turns into memories.

It’s a big deal, what’s happening tonight.

I’m proud of my son for a lot of reasons.

He’s worked hard….harder than a lot of people to figure all this stuff out.

Tonight he graduates from high school.

Man.

I saw that one coming a long time ago.