My buddy, friend, and former student Sean is turning 18 this month and is on his way to the Berklee School of Music in Boston and I need to brag about him.

I've known him since he was 10 years old and taught him since he was 12 or 13. I brought him to his first bluegrass festival, I helped him buy his first, and second, mandolin. I even, inadvertently, introduced him to his first girlfriend. I feel like his big brother.

I'm so very proud of him and I'm getting a little bit teary thinking about him leaving. But kids grow up and they go away to college and adults will miss them. That's how it works. But it doesn't make it any easier to see him leave. I'm kind of overwhelmed with pride for his accomplishments combined with sadness over watching him leave. I can imagine how his mom and dad must feel. Actually, "moms and dads" is more accurate since it was an open adoption and he knows and loves both his biological parents and his adoptive parents. By the time you add in my wife and I , our friend Jen, his step dad and so on he has a seriously extended family giving him love and support.

I don't have any video of Sean playing recently. I know I've posted this before but this is Sean at 15 playing at the same coffee shop where we just played his going away/birthday concert on Friday night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DUz6TKrLm8

Rock on Sean! You're going to be great at Berklee.