I AM A PROUD PAPA 

IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM  REDEFINING FATHERHOOD AND WATCHING HISTORY BE MADE INSTEAD OF REPEATED! 

INFINITE LOVE & GRATITUDE!

The month of October is one of the most important months for me as a son because both of my parents have birthdays.  Although, I had somewhat of my own rebirth entering the first week of October 2000.  It was my first week returning back to work from a 90-day short-term leave of absence that I was forced to take.  In July of 2000, I sustained a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) during a life-threatening car wreck that left me in a non-responsive coma for a few days.  Had I not survived, my role as a dad in the new millennium would not have been possible to help conceive, nor be present as a father when my first and only son Elijah, was born in 2002.  This past weekend on Saturday, September 28, 2019, on National Sons Day, and every day, I think about my son in today's society, and the legacy I am leaving behind as a single father that has raised him alone almost his entire life.  More than that, I took the time to listen to my son Elijah — to hear his dreams and fears and thoughts on the changing world around him as he begins to enter manhood as a legal adult next year.   

When my son was first born, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had published the National Survey of Family Growth (2002).  Research discovered that single-parent families have lower levels of parental involvement in school activities and lower student achievement, as compared with two-parent families.  The survey also uncovered that children raised in single-parent homes are more likely to drop out of high school, have lower performance and attendance while in school, and are less likely to enroll and graduate from college than children raised in two-parent families.  

My career in Information Technology really took off as the 20th century ended with fears of a Y2K computer glitch.  The Gen Y population was enrolling or participating in webinars using online technology rather than attending the traditional lecture-based classroom presentations. Advanced communication tools have provided opportunities for children of the new millennium to grow up with a “We Are the World” mentality, as they live and experience life in a global economy on the Internet.  Email and social media provide Millenials the connections needed to engage and create relationships with people from diverse cultures throughout the world without physically traveling across continents by various modes of transportation.  In the new millennium, you can use Skype, Zoom, or SnapChat if you want to meet someone digitally in person before you actually meet them physically in person.  The Millennials population is the fastest-growing segment of today’s workforce and the expectations are flexible work schedules, and better work/life balances.

Generation Z (also known as The Founders, Post-Millennials, Plurals or the Homeland Generation) are the youngest of the six (6) generations alive in our world society today. A significant aspect of Post-Millennials is the widespread usage of the Internet from a young age; Generation Z is the first to have Internet technology readily available and accessible at a very young age, and they are being exposed to an unprecedented amount of data, information, and innovative technology while being raised.  Use of the Internet and social media websites is the preferred channel to communicate and socialize with people at work, home, or across the globe.  Pervasive and ubiquitous computing devices are completely connected and constantly available in the 21^st century, and the Post-Millennials have been privy to advances in Information Technology research that rapidly has transformed the field, but also humanity throughout the world. 

Almost 19 years ago to the exact day, I returned back to work for the first time after sustaining a TBI that almost ended my life.  Now, on Tuesday, October 1st, 2019, I celebrated the induction of my son into the National Technical Honors Society in pursuit of a Career and Technical Education (CTE) in computer animation.   My son stood proud next to me and his Animation teacher of the past three years, Mr. Stewart, who has inspired my son along with his classmates in an area of technology that has only begun to emerge in the new millennium.  In 2020, it will be 20 years since my initial TBI.  However, my son will be graduating from High School and ranked in the top 10% of his graduating class of 441 and aspiring a college career in Visualization.  As a result, he has automatically been accepted into Texas A&M, a local university that has been ranked as one of the top animation schools in the United States.
  https://one.arch.tamu.edu/news/2018/5/5/ranked-among-nations-top-animation-schools/?fbclid=IwAR3U8l10nhV0mTOORqcO1ZtJLt7-WQuTcrenmY4-0s6pN6I62RO5nbZ9gC0