One of my closest friends throughout my life has been my cousin Jeff James.  I’m only three months older than he is which means we’ve been hanging out for close to 40 years.  Even though we’ve lived hundreds of miles apart most of that time we’ve been to the beach together many times (one trip when we were about 20 was particularly memorable for reasons I won’t go into to protect both of our careers), and hung out at his house or mine whenever we could.  When I moved to Winston-Salem a couple of years ago I was looking forward to seeing much more of my extended family, and in particular my two cousins closest in age to me, Jeff and Wendy.  Unfortunately I haven’t seen as much of Jeff as I’d have liked but there’s a very good reason for that, and it requires a little background.

When we first got out of high school in the mid-80s all of us went to college.  After a couple of years Jeff decided that school wasn’t for him so he dropped out and went to work.  He was married pretty soon after leaving school and he and his lovely wife Debbie had their daughter Courtney not long afterwards.  So while I was doing the fraternity party thing Jeff was working and starting a family.

A few years ago Jeff decided that he was ready to try school again.  He enrolled at High Point University and effectively lost the concept of free time.  He’s been in school year-round since then, taking a couple of classes each term, all while working full time at BB&T, fulfilling his role as husband and father (Courtney’s a senior in high school this year) and playing in a band. 

Last week Jeff finished his final class and he will be graduating with honors.  If my memory serves me correctly, which isn’t guaranteed due in large part to my brain-frying fraternity activities 20 years ago, Jeff had only one grade below an "A" so his GPA is probably higher than I can count.  To say it is an impressive accomplishment would be doing Jeff an extreme disservice.

Getting through college when you’re 21, have no real responsibilities outside of school and have the energy that comes with being young and not yet beaten into submission by your children, is what I would consider a moderately impressive accomplishment.  Doing it when you’re working full time, haven’t cracked a book in over 15 years and have all the responsibilities that come with being married with children is an accomplishment that few of us can claim.  To do it and graduate with honors is simply one of the great achievements I’ve ever witnessed.

We had a little celebration for Jeff after our family Christmas gathering last Saturday and Debbie threw a surprise party for him on Sunday so that he could celebrate with some of his co-workers and friends.  It was great to see his efforts and accomplishments celebrated, and I hope he realized how proud everyone was of him and how pleased everyone was for him. 

Jeff has always been a great guy, kind and level headed, loyal to his family and friends, always there when needed.  He made some tremendous sacrifices to get his degree (so did Debbie and Courtney by the way) and my hope is that he will realize great rewards for that sacrifice.  He’s certainly earned them.

Nothing I write can do Jeff justice, so just let me end this by saying that I can’t remember ever feeling greater pride in a friend and I’m grateful that I’ve had 40 years to be graced by his presence in my life.  Now that he’s done with school I hope we’ll all be graced by his presence a whole lot more. 

In other words, it’s time to party big guy!