The Gwilliam Fam: Tanner's Odessa College Graduation

May 13, 2023

We were able to celebrate Tanner and his graduation with his associates degree from Odessa College. I am so proud of him. Almost halfway through his Junior year he found out Erin was pregnant. He made the decision to quit basketball and begin working. He also met with his counselor, Jennifer Perkins, to see about graduating early. What he realized was that he could take several more dual credit classes, graduate with his class, and earn his associates, if he would rather go that route.

Tanner has always been determined. He buckled down and took lots of online classes. He made fantastic grades too.

He also did the work program his Senior year. A few months he worked doing door to door sales at the beginning of fall semester and the end of winter semester, but most of the time he was a helper for Ms. Perkins. She let Erin do that as well. Then they were able to toggle their school classes so Kaide would only be in day care a few hours a day. I was very impressed with them both.

Back to graduation. I think it's pretty cool that he graduated with his associates two weeks before he graduated from high school. I was extremely proud of him. He said he wasn't going to walk at either graduation. I told him if he was just going to do one, I hoped it was OC. Ms. Perkins convinced him to and even though he wasn't really excited, he walked.

Here are a few pictures from the day.

Out of the 750 Permian High School graduates, 22 students earned their associate degrees. So impressive.

We are pretty casual about graduation celebrations. Also, because the kids activities conflicted so often growing up, we usually did the divide and conquer route. Sometimes the kids would end up at each other's activities, but it wasn't something we ever pushed. There were just too many activities always happening. (baseball, soccer, gymnastics, piano recitals, choir recitals, football, dance, awards assemblies etc) Anyway, Aubrey didn't want to go and that was just fine with us. She planned, reluctantly, to meet us for lunch afterwards. (She has plans with Maiya, and she didn't want any delay.)

Well....Erin's entire family came to support. Wow and yikes! It was impressive. We told Tanner that he for sure needed to go to Permian graduation now to support Erin, whether he walked or not. Brian and I knew we would need/want to also even if Tanner didn't walk. It was really sweet that her family came to be there for Tanner.

Kaide was a super clapper. That came in handy with all of the applause. Also, one time the family next to us cheered and yelled super loudly when their graduates name was called. Kaide gave them an open mouth stare down for a good minute. It was hilarious. He just didn't know what to think, and everyone was cracking up. It looked like he was judging them hard!

The graduate with his cute little boy.

Can you see the joy in my face. Seriously so proud of Tanner Brian.

Tanner with Dina (Erin's sister), Erin and Kaide

We had planned to go to Barn Door afterwards, but it wasn't open. Then we called and drove to several restaurants. Finally, we were able to get into Chilis. It was fun to visit with the Flores family and get to know them better. They are really, really nice and that makes me happy.