beyond cinderella

Tim is a delightful young man our daughter, Shantel, met at college. He is twenty-six years old, married, and has two children. Last semester, when I took Shantel to school, and had to wait with her in the cafeteria until Disabilities Services opened so Shantel could pick up some braille books, and/or the testing center to open where Shantel takes all her tests, I had the good fortune to meet and spend time with Tim myself.

At first glance, Tim is not the type of person I would normally be drawn too, but I am so glad I didn’t pass up the opportunity to get to know him. When I first met Tim, he had wild, orange hair, would always wear short sleeve shirts with suspenders, and talked a lot about comic books, and in particular Spiderman. He has Spiderman licence plates, his school Id hangs from a Spiderman necklace, and even his phone cover is Spiderman. Tim said he is a self-proclaimed Nerd, and proud of it. He was VERY excited that he was going to attended four days at Comicon (comic book convention), dressed as Spiderman this year. Personally, at the time, I found that strange for a twenty-six year old man, but I thought hey, who am I to judge?

Shantel and Tim became good friends over the past few months. Shantel would come home and tell me how her friend, Tim, would help her understand her math homework and that he would even come in early on days when Shantel had tests and drill her to help ensure she would pass.

Over time, as I had opportunities to visit with Tim, I got to know and understand him on a deeper level. He shared with me that he served our country in the US Army. He is devoted to his family, loves cars, and science. I also came to understand that Tim is wicked smart. He is currently working his way through math and the sciences and earing his way to a double major in Physics and Chemistry. When Tim completes his studies this year, and has his degrees from South Mountain Community College, he will move his family and transfer to the University of Texas.

This year, we are so fortunate that Tim is taking the same level Chem Class as Shantel, and he agreed to be her lab partner, and take notes for her in class.

Shantel came home yesterday and told me Tim sent her a private Facebook message the night before letting her know he was asked to come to the school office and sign papers so he would be paid to take notes for Shantel in her Chem class. Notetakers get paid $75.00 per credit hour. Chem is a four credit class, so Tim would make $300.00 for the semester. Shantel said Tim wanted to know if she had any issues with him doing that. Shantel told Tim she had no problem with him signing the papers, and asked him why he thought she would. Tim told Shantel ” I don’t want to profit off your misfortune, but if you don’t have any issues with it, I can really use the money.” Now, that, speaks volumes to me about the integrity of Tim.

Integrity: A concept of consistency of actions, values, methods, measures, principles, expectations, and outcome.

I’m dedicating this blog post to Tim because he is such a special and unique person, a true friend to Shantel, and truly a “man of integrity“.

Stay Tuned!