Jim was not only able to skip two years of grade school, but he also managed to finish high school a year early. Jim was only fifteen years old when he graduated from high school. Although he found it a bit bizarre that his younger brother had finished high school before him, Anthony was very happy for Jim's success and continued to look forward to seeing all of the success Jim would make in the future.
Jim, unsurprisingly, graduated as Valedictorian in his class and received more scholarships than he could keep track of. Many colleges were impressed by how such a young student could accomplish so much and happily allowed him to enter in spite of his age. Jim's accomplishments suddenly became well known all across the state, appearing in various newspapers and magazine articles, including the Texas Monthly. Many people now knew how much of an intelligent and wonderful young man that Jim was and, like Anthony, all predicted that Jim would grow to have even more success in the future. Anthony could not help but cry whenever he heard these things.
That's my baby brother, he would be thinking joyfully the entire time.
Julia also managed to graduate from high school a year early. She graduated at number four in her class and also received plenty of scholarships. While she wasn't as heavily recognized as Jim, Julia received plenty of praise from various colleges and given quite a number of opportunities as well. Chris, on the other hand, decided not to graduate high school early. On the day of his friends' graduation, he wished them plenty of luck and looked forward to seeing their successes in the future.
Jim and Julia both decided to go to Texas A&M University. While Julia wanted to pursue nursing, Jim was interested in something much different. Having grown up with parents who were almost never around, Jim did not want a career that would keep him overly busy to the point that he had no time for anything else. Jim wanted a family in the future and sought to find a career that would allow him to provide for them and, at the same time, spend as much time with them as possible. After doing some deep thinking for several days, Jim decided he would become a college professor. He pursued a Ph.D. in physics (which had always been his favorite subject) and planned to one day teach at a university. Anthony was happy that Jim was taking this route instead of striving to find the most well-paying career that he could find. It perfectly showed what kind of person that Jim was.
While Jim was heavily focused on his schoolwork, he always strived to find time to visit his family (despite his parents never being around the house enough to see him home) and spend time with his friends. Just as Jim and Anthony both had predicted, Jim began to make several more friends once he begun college. However, Julia remained his best friend. The two would go visit with each other anytime they were not busy with their schoolwork and sometimes study together. Julia sometimes would go with Jim to visit his family and would spend some holidays, such as Thanksgiving or Christmas, with him as well.
Jim had also traveled with Julia to visit her family as well, but they did this very rarely because Julia's family lived all the way in New Hampshire (Jim and Julia both hated long distance traveling). Julia's parents had moved to Houston when she was in fifth grade to live near her grandmother, who had sadly passed away when Julia was a sophomore in high school. After Julia's grandmother's death, Julia's parents wanted to move back to New Hampshire, but they decided to wait until Julia finished high school. Luckily for them, that ended up being only one more year.
In the first year after graduating from high school, Jim and Julia also tried to keep in contact with Chris as much as they could. They would call him on the phone every so often and even traveled back to Dallas to see him a few times. However, as the years went by, Jim and Julia's contact with Chris began to oddly diminish. After about four years had passed, Chris had become nothing more than a friend that came and went. Julia and Jim had no idea where he lived or what he was doing with his life. They did know that Chris had graduated ninth in his graduation class and had been trying to get into A&M as well. However, Chris never confirmed to Jim and Julia that he had gotten in and Jim and Julia never saw him on campus. Jim was sure that had Chris gotten into A&M, he would've gone out of his way to visit his friends as much as possible, as that had been the main reason he was trying to get into A&M in the first place. Wherever Chris was, Jim always hoped that he was still doing well with his education and living a great life.
When Jim and Julia first began college, their relationship was nothing more than a great friendship. As the years went by, however, the two suddenly began to grow much more closer than they had ever been before. Although Jim loved his family more than anything else, he couldn't help but feel that the bond that had grown between him and Julia was even greater than any other one he had with anyone else, including Anthony. Whenever he was with Julia, Jim always had a strong feeling of happiness that was greater than anything else he had felt before. These feelings made Jim feel ashamed, as he had never wanted anything to get in the way of his love for his family. What would Anthony think of this?
Though hesitant to do so at first, Jim revealed all of his new feelings for Julia to Anthony on a visit almost four years after graduating from high school. Jim stared at the floor and cringed the entire time he spoke. He wasn't even sure how Anthony would react after he was done speaking. However the very last thing he expected was Anthony smiling and saying: "Dude, quit being so overdramatic. If you're in love, then go for it! You don't need to ask permission."
Jim picked his head up and smiled.
"Yeah, yeah. I know." He said, sighing in relief.
"I'm hungry," Anthony said. "Let's order a pizza."
Sure enough, by the time four years had passed since their graduation, Jim and Julia were officially in a romantic relationship. The two would then always work on their schoolwork together, they would have lunch and dinner together each day (while still working on their schoolwork) and would plan a date every single weekend. Sometimes they would go see a movie, other times they would eat dinner at very elegant restaurants, and some other times they would simply go on a walk together. Jim was now seeking his master's degree (he had received his bachelor's degree at only nineteen), so he now had much more work to do then before, but he still strived to find as much time as he could to spend time with both Julia and his family (even if it meant getting very little sleep). There didn't come a day where Anthony didn't receive a phone call from Jim.
After dating Julia for two years, Jim thought it was about time he asked Julia, as some of his friends referred to it as, "the big question." Jim and Julia had talked about marriage a few times in the past, and they both felt they were about ready to make this great transition in their relationship. Sure enough, after going to see a movie and having a nice dinner at The Republic (Julia's favorite restaurant in College Station), Jim made the proposal. Jim would never forget the look of pure joy on Julia's face the instant he asked the question.
"It was obvious that I had totally redeemed myself after taking her to see that horrible movie," Jim would later say.
Anthony, who had been waiting outside in his car, quickly ran up and hugged both Jim and Julia the instant he saw the happy newly engaged couple leave the restaurant. Jim and Anthony's parents (who had actually taken some time off of work to see their son's proposal) ran up and hugged them shortly afterwards. Groups of people who had witnessed the proposal came to up to Jim and Julia and hugged them as well, wishing them plenty of luck in their marriage. Anthony could never forget this beautiful moment.
Jim and Julia married at the Ashton Gardens wedding chapel in Houston about ten months later. Anthony, who was best man at the wedding, nearly blew out his vocal cords after cheering for the couple the instant they kissed each other and officially became husband and wife. Jim couldn't help but chuckle a bit at Anthony's excitement as he took Julia's hand and they walked down the aisle to go cut the wedding cake.
By this point, Jim, only twenty-two years old, had already received his master's degree in physics and was already working on getting his PhD. He worked as both a college teaching assistant and a tutor and was arguably one of the best ones at A&M. Now he was married to a wonderful woman whom he could enjoy all of his accomplishments with. Jim couldn't even contain all the excitement he was now feeling.
However, the excitement that he was feeling didn't even come close to the level of excitement he felt when he and Julia made a discovery about six months later.
Anthony had been warming up some microwavable steak fingers and mashed potatoes for dinner (Anthony had never known how to use the stove), when he received an unexpected phone call from Jim. Jim's tone of voice as he shouted into the phone was so overly thrilled and unlike any tone of voice that Jim had ever had before that Anthony had almost thought he was entirely different person at first.
"We're expecting!"
Anthony couldn't even taste his dinner after hearing the phone call. His mind was entirely focused on how happy and thrilled he was for his brother. There was no doubt that Jim was going to be a great parent. Family had always been the most important thing to Jim, and Anthony knew that Jim would continue to put his child first at all times in the future. Anthony was sure that his niece or nephew would have a much better and happier childhood than he himself could have hoped for. Anthony spent the rest of the night imagining his niece or nephew growing up and how much fun he would have being an uncle. Tears of happiness began to fill up in Anthony's eyes as he imagined.
When Jim first saw his child's heartbeat, he became so filled with joy that he nearly passed out. Jim had always wanted to be a father. Starting a family had always been a much more important goal to him than having a successful career, and now that goal of his was about to be reached. After he and Julia discovered the news, Jim, like Anthony, began to imagine all the wonderful times he would have with his child as the years went by and cried rivers of joy as he did so. "I'm going to be a daddy, I'm going to be a daddy," was all Jim found himself saying for the rest of the night.
Jim was twenty-three years old when he first became the father of a baby girl, who was named Cassandra. When Jim held newborn Cassie for the first time, he couldn't stop crying no matter how hard he tried. He had never been more happy in his life. Anthony filmed this moment with a video camera and his eyes also became wet with tears as he did. Jim's love for his beautiful daughter was shown perfectly as he cradled her in his arms and kissed her little face every few seconds. The moment was so beautiful that Anthony could not help but watch the video from time to time even years after Cassie was born.
Anthony found it amazing how far Jim had come in his life. Jim had gone through so much torment during his childhood, yet he managed to get past it all and succeed in the end. He now had a bright future ahead of him, a loving wife, and was now a father to a beautiful little girl. Anthony couldn't imagine anything that would keep Jim from always living a happy and successful life.
Anthony had always believed that Jim was a perfect representation of the saying "you can't keep a good man down." Jim was somebody who would never give up and continue fighting even in the toughest of times. Little did Anthony know that the toughest of times for Jim was yet to come.
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