David Michael

Our 7th grandchild and 5th grandson, David, is 17 years old today!

David is an important part of this large family.  (Here we are with 7 members missing.)

And an even more important part of this smaller, large family.

Last night I interviewed David and here's how it went.

You're going to be 17 tomorrow right?  Right!  How does that feel?  Kind of different.  In what way?  Well, I can go to movie theaters by myself and watch R rated movies.  But you never would, would you?  No....no.

Do you have your driver's license?  Yes, I do.  And do you have a car?  Well, I have the blue van because Dad has his red truck and Mom has the Acadia.  What are you allowed to use it for?  I drive to practice and pick up Chipotle and sometimes when I ask my parents, I can drop a few friends off from practice.  Do you help with the many family chauffeuring requirements?  I take Katie to practice sometimes because she's on my way and we sometimes have practice on the same night. 

 Do you like to drive?  I love to drive!

What's your favorite sport to watch?  I love to watch football!  And what's your favorite team?  The Colts and they won last night against the Broncos which is awesome.  That means they'll be playing the Patriots and when they beat them, they'll go to the Super Bowl.  I would love to see Andrew Luck in the Super Bowl.  He's only 3 or 4 years in the NFL and he's broken many of Peyton Mannings records and the records of lots of other quarterbacks already.

What's your favorite sport to play?  Volleyball!  It's a very fun sport!  What position do you play?  This year I'm playing right side hitter but I love to play outside hitter which is left side.  Is this a school team?  No it's a club team kind of like a traveling team.  This weekend we're going to either Rochester NY or Pennsylvania.  Those are the farthest distances we travel other than the Nationals which are in Texas this year.  Do you play defense as well as offense?   Yes, I usually play all around rather than getting subbed out.  I love to pass as much as hit but I need to want to get better at it.  Defense is more challenging when you're tall.

You're a junior this year?  Yes.  Do you enjoy school?  Yes.  I'm taking some AP (Advanced Placement - which is more than Honors - almost college based classes) How are your grades?  Pretty good but I did get two C+'s on my last report card in AP History and Honors English.  I'm hoping to improve on those this grading period.  I know you take your studies very seriously.

 What's your favorite subject?  Math.  I'm really good at it and I like it a lot.  I'm in Pre-calculus Honors right now.  All your courses sound hard?  Yeah, they're kind of ridiculous.

Do you know what you'd like to do when you finish school?  I've been thinking about it and I think I'd like to go into Business Management or Accounting.  I'm taking an accounting class this year and I'm really enjoying it.

I know you're very active in scouting.  How do you manage to do that with all your other activities?  It's hard during football season but now I'm getting back into it.  I've already completed my project and now I'm working on the paperwork to be an Eagle Scout.  What was your project?  I built picnic tables for Nana's church.  They built a new playground and needed tables so I built 3 kids ones, 1 medium one, and 1 adult one.  It was my job to coordinate the project and be sure everybody was doing it correctly.

 

You've always been very helpful

and you still are.  We'd probably still be in the beach house if you hadn't helped us so much moving out.  Do you have regular chores at home or do you help out as needed?  Yeah, I try to help with laundry, the dishwasher, and walking the dog and we clean the whole house every two weeks so that's always fun.  Not really.  

Are you single right now or are you seeing someone?  I've been with Jannell 2 1/2 months now - since Homecoming.  She's wonderful, really very nice.  I saw the picture on Facebook and asked Grandpa, "Is he really that tall or is she really short?"  It's a little bit of both.

What else can you tell us about yourself?  

I played football this season for Lake Braddock where I started as a defensive end and I had an honorable mention in our conference which means I was one of the best out of eight schools which is actually really cool.  And I met with a scout from Bucknell University which is a small school in Pennsylvania.

I also had an email from Penn State for volleyball which helped lead me to my decision to choose volleyball over basketball.  

I had a great time in Alabama with everybody and I think it was a really good decision to go there because we could do more things outside which was amazing.  Here's a shot from an ultimate frisbie game.

And now I'll add a few things that we didn't cover in the interview.  David is one of the finest young men I've ever known.  He's sweet, considerate, helpful, kind, and smart.  He also participated with two of his cousins in the New Year's Eve talent show and he had some pretty fine moves.

 We love you and are extremely proud of you, David, and we're wishing you the best birthday ever and hoping it's only half as good as the decades of birthdays to come.