Luke, Ryan and I spent countless hours together as I trained them to catch, throw and bat. We constantly explored some of the Australian towns, parks and coast line and we were always on the go. They became great at baseball, tennis, soccer and swimming. Luke and Ryan attended an extraordinary private co-ed school with an amazing campus called John XXIII College( JTC). They both took guitar lessons since 1st grade and became well accomplished musicians. Mimi and I attended countless music recitals. Luckily, they both concentrated on Jazz and Rock and Roll because Mimi and I did not really prefer some of the classical music that so many of the other kids were playing.
At Luke’ s graduation from high school, Luke organized a few guys to give a performance and he invited Ryan to play the guitar in front of the entire school. Both boys did well academically but there were some hiccups and some additional tutoring was required. Luke was voted in by the students and teachers as the Head Boy, and represented the entire school in many ways. He gave great speeches in front of very large audiences at formal affairs which amazed us. Ryan just lost out on becoming a Head Boy as it appeared that although he had the votes of the students and teachers, the principal gave the position to a friend’ s son. Mimi and I went to all of their school and sporting events and were very much aware of their daily activities. Both boys took the more difficult math and science courses with a view towards entering university. Since they were toddlers, I had brought both of them to the open days at the University of Western Australia. They were very familiar with the physics, chemistry, biology, engineering and other departments as each year we would see what exhibits they had and we would complete the questionnaires to then get our free hotdogs.
They both achieved placement scores at the end of high school that allowed them to attend university and they both chose structural and civil engineering. Importantly, they were well balanced and had strong co-ed social life and were involved with many extra-curricular sports and volunteer activities. Although Luke had several girlfriends during high school, Ryan had one girlfriend- Shaunna- whom he stayed with for 6 consecutive years. Shaunna is a delightful girl and was the daughter that Mimi and I never had.
BARRY STEVEN EPSTEIN- PhotoAutobiography DRAFT 78 of 156