Stephen grows up.

In a child’s mind four years ago was a long time. It has been almost 4 and half years since Stephen’s father went flying high and was finally able to rest peacefully.

Yesterday my mind kept wandering to Jerry and wondering what he would think of his son now.
What would he say about Stephen starting his own business at age 9?
What would he think about Stephen taking it upon himself to get SCUBA certified at age 10?

What would his thoughts be seeing Stephen step up into an airplane and flying above us in the sky, tipping the wings and waving to those below at the young age of 12?
I wonder if Stephen somehow feels closer to his dad when he’s up there playing leap frog with the clouds?

When children are young they have these ideas of what they wanted to be someday. Stephen’s always wanted to do something with airplanes and military. Sadly, as his body has been changing, it was discovered that he has an abnormality in his feet. After a few months of therapy, it was decided that they can never be completely “fixed'“. Stephen won’t be in the military. But that doesn’t stop him from giving all that he’s got in The Civil Air Patrol. His love for it shows as he works hard to continue to rank up and march on (even when his feet makes the marching part hard.)

Recently Stephen has been learning 3D printing and he’s become obsessed with it. He has found that he really loves engineering and figuring out how things work. So as an early Christmas/ Bday gift (they are at the same time for Stephen— poor kid), a family member that has been teaching him classes surprised Stephen with a 3D printer. Stephen has been doing his research, because he’s very earth conscience, and found filament that is biodegradable and eco friendly, including it’s upcycled packaging.

Stephen is filling his Amazon wish list with ALL the PolyTerra colors, so that you can feel good about buying a 3D product from him.

With Stephen’s new found love of 3D printing, it has also caused helped him to realize how much he loves engineering, and discovering how things work. He took the news of not being military bound just fine and now has become very engineering focused.

I asked him.. “So you don’t want to work as a commercial pilot or some type of job that has to do with flying? “ Nope. He wants to be an aerospace engineer.

What WOULD his dad think of that?!