Owen has always been this driving force in my life. No academic challenge is too high for this history geek. He has always been the best and we are all extremely proud of him and all of his accomplishments.
He interned at the Air and Space Smithsonian, received the Gilder Lehrman award, and is currently a 8th grade history teacher at Evergreen middle school.
Which if you don't know O, the inspiration for him to become an history teacher came from his own 8th grade history teacher, Mr. Detweiler.
He wants to get a tattoo that says "Fore score and seven years ago".
I mean really....
Hes always been a bit of an old soul and he loves Allan Alda pretty much more than life itself.
He finds beauty in a rusty old can from the 1800s that hes found on the side of a mountain.
Whenever we go on vacation, hes always pushing us to hike more. That 75 mile trek we did in the Tetons in 7 days, all because of him.
But I know he loves me even though he doesn't show it all that often. He has these random sweet little moments where you can see he actually has a soul inside that machine of a brain.
Hes teased me from pretty much the time I was in high school about me becoming a crazy old cat lady, or that I was attracted to women.
Just so were clear, I despise cats.
And being a woman I know how mean we can be. Plus I have a lot of estrogen that needs to be equaled out.
But one of the nicest things hes ever said to me, and he'll probably deny it if it ever comes up, was about relationships.
It was on Christmas eve and all three Volzke children were settling in for the night. I was a bit cranky because I was the only one that was single and sometimes I just get into these nasty whirlwinds. Pretty much when the siblings significant others come over and you add in my parents, i'm the 7th wheel.
So I wasn't in the mood to be joked with about relationships, it was still a bit of a sore spot. But Owen poked at it and I snarked back.
He felt bad for making me feel unwanted so he said something along the lines of "Its not like you're un date-able, its just that you do things your own way. You take your own path. "
Claire and Owen have always been able to easily move from one relationship to another. Claire it usually takes her a month or two until she finds another wonderful nice guy. And O it only took a few months until him and Ashley started going out.
But hearing from him, a person I look up to, that he saw hope for me even though I didn't see it, was enough to change my perspective.
So Happy Birthday O. You deserve all you've worked for and more. Thanks for showing me that there's still hope and for pushing me to be more.
Here's to more trips around the sun.
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