Happy Birthday Sam!

Sam turned 16 on Friday.  Man is he an ambitious kid.

The current big adventure he's planning for is a trip to Germany next summer.  This summer we're hosting an exchange student named Florian then next summer Sam gets to spend a few weeks with Florian's family.  Man has Sam latched on to the whole "Germany is cool" thing.  He's even looking into how he can attend University there.

Sam is also looking for a job.  He's been networking like a madman and lined up babysitting gigs several times.  Other than that, the most promising prospect at the moment is a frozen custard place called Culver's.  They actually called him back for a second interview.  Can you believe it?  A fast food place that conducted multiple rounds of interviews?  But hey, Sam got to the second round.

His big past time is creating electronic music.  He participates in online forums dedicated to it.  Spends a lot of time at his keyboard playing.

"Hey dad, you know how I wanted to learn more about music theory and how to improve what I make?"

"Yeah?"

"Well I found some colleges that offer free online courses on the subjects and signed up for three."

"Wow. That's a big load to take while still going to high school."

"Oh, not at the same time.  Just one at a time."

"Ah, whew.  What colleges?"

"Like, Berky?  and Emmy?  Or something like that."

"You mean Berkley?  and Emory?"

"Yeah, those are them."

"Wow, those are some impressive schools."

"Are they?"

"Umm, yeah, Sam.  They are."

Turns out the course he's taking is at a Berklee College of Music, not UC-Berkley.  Not being part of that scene, I had to go look it up.  Apparently it's pretty impressive in its own right, having graduated a large number of big name music stars.

So between a trip to Germany and music production equipment, Sam's future paychecks are already spent.  But well spent, I'd say.  He's a cool kid to have.