{"id":9363,"date":"2021-08-20T01:54:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-20T01:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=9363"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:34:39","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:34:39","slug":"13th-grade-for-samuel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=9363","title":{"rendered":"13th GRADE FOR SAMUEL"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We helped Samuel move into his tiny dorm room at Ball State this evening &#8230; and Melissa and I shed a few tears in the process.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/20210819_174435_HDR-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1152\" height=\"2048\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/20210819_174502_HDR-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1079\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here&#8217;s the letter I left in his dorm room when we departed:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dear Samuel,<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I assume you know that my jokes about getting you out of the\nhouse recently are just a coping mechanism for dealing with this moment. It\ndoesn\u2019t seem real and it doesn\u2019t get any easier with each kid who leaves the\nnest.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I want you to know how proud your mother and I are of you.\nYou are a unique young man. I have never known anyone else with your mix of\ngood humor, brains, faith and compassion. I have been amazed to see how you\njumped into a senior year at a new school and made the most out of the\nopportunities it presented. Maybe it wasn\u2019t easy for you, but you certainly\nmade it look that way. I also admire how you pursue various interests and teach\nyourself whatever you want to know \u2013 from computer languages to chess.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I think your choice of friends also speaks so highly of your\ncharacter. They are a good group and, like you, they seem to be leaders rather\nthan followers. Your mom and I have also been so impressed with the maturity of\nyour relationship with your girlfriend. She is a sweet young lady and we will be curious\nto see where God takes that relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We are going to miss you around the house, but we know it is\ntime for you to head out. \u00a0As you get\nstarted at Ball State, keep your head on straight and keep close to God. I will\nbe praying that you find a solid Christian community to be a part of \u2013 a church\nor campus Bible study \u2013 and that the Lord surrounds you with good and faithful\nfriends.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Never forget how much you are loved from home and from\nheaven!<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With Love and Admiration,<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dad<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We helped Samuel move into his tiny dorm room at Ball State this evening &#8230; and Melissa and I shed a few tears in the process.\u00a0 Here&#8217;s the letter I left in his dorm room when we departed:\u00a0 Dear Samuel, I assume you know that my jokes about getting you out of the house recently [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9364,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9363"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9366,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9363\/revisions\/9366"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}