Hayden + Houston

Dates       5/30/19 – 6/1/19
total distance: 1920 by plane and car

People: Hayden (kiddo, H, HP)
Hayden was my first nephew, adorable, loving and born to solve problems. I was helping a 3-year-old Hayden into his pajamas and asked why he was wearing his Toy Story themed-underwear backwards. He smiled-smartly “This is the only way I can see Buzz Lightyear!”

Hayden's High School graduation filled my heart with excitement as he took his first step across-the-stage toward becoming a responsible adult. Hayden is studying business, like his Poppa, while walking through the world with his great-grandpa Paul’s tall + thin body and calm + strong demeanor.

Place: Houston (aka HTown, enormous & dangerous highways heading every direction)
Houston is a growing city, and when I say growing I mean continually under construction. Nonexistent zoning laws seem to invite developers to build rifle ranges, next to pig farms, next to child care centers, next to strip clubs. Creating a unique one stop-shop.

Our adventure begins:
Hayden’s graduation was in the arena of the Berry Center, where: ​

• tickets were required 
• holding seats was forbidden
• photos must to be taken from your chair

Everything is bigger in Texas, including the Berry Center, an $84M monument to urban sprawl with a: 

1. 9,500-seat arena
2. 15,000-square-foot conference center 
3. 11,000-seat stadium and theater 

Carefully coordinated graduations from the regions High Schools were scheduled efficiently throughout the weekend, with a new one scheduled to begin every 3 hours. Hayden’s graduation, with his 1000 classmates began promptly at 8 p.m.

The graduation parade began, with one name read every 3 seconds...

340 attached LED panels produced a super-sized-video-wall featuring a chorus line of navy-blue-gowned graduates. Each students paused 1 second for a photo + handshake, before continuing off the stage. This assembly-line-graduation, resulted from population explosion, where students are reassigned to new elementary and middle schools as quickly as they are built.

The unique benefit of this population explosion is the exceptional diversity, as the every-3-second-names resonated complex combinations of consonants and vowels, reflecting origins from across the globe. Faculty pronounced each complex-combination-name flawlessly making me wonder if they knew each of these 1000+ young adults individually. 

Hayden steps into the adult world and onto the time-flying, sometimes brutal-reality-adult-roller coaster, which lifts us to enormous heights then suddenly-drops us through dark-tunnels, around sharp corners and with much resilience - back into the bright sunshine.

Graduation, a significant life change, demands we change how we see the world, what we seek from it and how we operate within it. Preventing ourselves from getting stuck gazing forward or back, while continuing to find new ways to be present, to be kind and to get ready for the next big change. 

Hayden, I wish you a wonderful adult-adventure, and remember that your family is behind you with support and unconditional love “to infinity and beyond” (B. Lightyear, 1995).

What I loved:

• Witnessing Hayden’s graduation on a 38 foot screen
• The principal quoting one of my favorite authors & books, Dr. Seuss
• Playing Macy’s Long Division Math Game where every answer ended in .666 or .333 to infinity
• Family BBQ with food from HEB Flying into Hobby (HOU) vs. Houston George Bush (IAH)

What I didn't love:

• ​Renting a car to sit in traffic and navigate around construction

​