Oh, The Places You'll Go...

Congratulations!  Today is your day.

You're off to Great Places!

You're off and away.

You have brains in your head.

You have feet in your shoes

You can steer yourself

any direction you choose.

You're on your own.  And you know what you know.

And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go.

You'll look up and down streets.  Look 'em over with care.

About some you will say, "I don't choose to go there."

With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, 

You're too smart to go down any not-so-good street.

You will come to a place where the streets are not marked.

Some windows are lighted, but mostly they're darked.

A place you could sprain both your elbow and chin!

Do you dare to stay out?  Do you dare to go in?

How much can you lose?  How much can you win?

And IF you go in, should you turn left or right...

or right-and-three quarters?  Or, maybe, not quite?

Or go around back and sneak in from behind?

Simple it's not, I'm afraid you will find,

for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind.

You can get so confused

that you'll start in to race

down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace

and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,

headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.

The Waiting Place...

Somehow you'll escape 

all that waiting and staying.

You'll find the bright places

where Book Bands are playing.

With banner flip-flapping,

once more you'll ride high!

Ready for anything under the sky.

Ready because you're that kind of a guy!

Oh, the places you'll go!  There is fun to be done!

KID, YOU'LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!!

So...

be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray

or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea,

you're off to Great Places!

Today is your day!

Your mountain is waiting.

So... get on your way!

(Excerpts from:  Oh, The Places You'll Go!  by Dr. Seuss)

Brian, 

I hope you find this post... these photos... and this note when you're grown.  It will be then that you'll fully appreciate just how proud we are of you.  Not just for "graduating preschool" - but for making it through this year with such a great attitude and an enormous amount of strength.  You're like our little jedi warrior.  Strong and tender at the same time.  You've been asked to handle so much this year - on top of your brother dying.  Your Dad and I sat back and watched you just unfold from a cocoon of sorrow and shyness into a butterfly.  You made friends... you came out of your shell... you learned so much (and often blew us away!)... and you were consistently kind and brave and well mannered.

We know you are ready for kindergarten and will go on to do great things in your new school.  But more than that, we know that your wonderful attitude and enormous heart will make you a success in whatever you set out to do.

For every mountain you climb in your life... you can be sure that your family will be cheering for you all the way up - and always waiting for you at the bottom with open arms.

We love you, Brian!