My Brothers Graduation

My brother is defending his thesis this Wednesday at MIT. His thesis is on the Virtual Articulation and Kinematic Abstraction in Robotics. I'm not really sure what that means, he has been working on things like this since he was born, and I've never understood a word of it, but I have followed him and watched him admirably as any younger sibling would through all of it.

When we would go on vacation he would read math books on the beach instead of making sand castles, and when we would go to the toy store to get a toy I would get a new purple My Little Pony and he would ask for a C++ programming book from Barnes and Noble. When I was 5 and he was 6 1/2 he built a light bulb out of a mayonnaise jar with some old wires and a battery. He was the kid who built the rockets in our neighborhood that didn't need to be lit with a match because they were remote controlled. I was the kid that had to go get them when they landed through some neighbors window or across the field. When I would be outside trying to convince the neighborhood kids that we really could dig a pool in the backyard and line it with garbage bags to hold the water, he was in our basement working on the tool bench my Uncle Feet built for him trying to figure out how to put back together the Commedore 64 we just bought that he decided to take apart.

My neighbors and I used to dance ballet when we were small, so we would put on the Nutcracker every summer in their basement. My brother did all of the lighting and effects by taking apart old light brites and using Lego's. He won the science fair every year without fail. But by middle school they refused to give him first place because they would not believe that a twelve year old could construct such a sophisticated circuit board. They were sure my dad did it for him (my dad could not work a fax machine, let alone design a circuit board). He was valedictorian of our high school. The day he gave his valedictorian speech my dad had just bought a new camcorder. He was so proud and so excited to take this video he read the instructions 5 times with me the night before. When my brother got up to speak, we turned it on and it died after the first minute. We realized we had done everything except charge the battery.

At his college graduation, he was being given a very special award and I can't forget the day because I (and this was not the first time) managed to find a way to lock the keys in our car with the car running. Needless to say some of us missed this ceremony (sorry mom!). After college he got his masters and then went to work for NASA. He worked on the CAD programming for the two mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity. He also won the award that year for the most innovative team at NASA.

Now, in two days he will graduate with his PhD. The last step in his journey towards a career. He got a job as a professor at a very prestigious university in Boston and I couldn't be more proud of him then I am right now. Good luck on Wednesday, I know you will do great and this time I promise to be there without locking keys in a car or forgetting the batteries to our camera.