Lubbock is home for a unique family. The Wells Quintuplets have grown a lot since we last talked with them. All five will graduate from high school this weekend, then they will start living their lives separately … new terrain for each of them.
Seventeen and a half years ago, five boys were born to Mike Wells and Jamie Pitman: one set of just fifteen in the world.
“it’s kind of a quirky experience to be special and out of the ordinary,” Jantzen Wells said.
Quintuplets of the same sex are rare, but these brothers don’t let that go to their heads.
When Jaden Wells was asked what it was like to grow up as a quintuplet, he said, “I would say it’s not any different than growing up with like one or two siblings, the only difference is people asking questions like ‘your mom must have been big…God bless her heart.’ That’s the only difference.”
After being part of a group of five their whole lives, Zachary, Briley, Landen, Jaden and Jantzen are graduating from Lubbock High School this weekend and start their lives as individuals. Both parents said they are looking forward to them spreading out.
Before talking about what’s next for each of them, they reflected on their lives growing up together and what some of their best memories were.
Jaden tells me that going to the pool all at one time as kids was his favorite. Briley’s favorite thing growing up was playing video games together, even if they had to take turns. For Landen, learning valuable lessons of leadership from his brothers are his greatest memories. Jantzen reminisced about how Christmas was his favorite because they would all go into the living room together and all of their presents were labeled and their parents even sectioned off parts of the living room for each of them. And Zachary says his best memories were when they were all 6 years old and some kid show would be on when they got up and they would all hang out and play guitar hero.
Through the years their family dynamics changed as each of their parents remarried. But their mom, Jamie Pitman, says that “she thinks the main reason things were so easy after her and their dad divorced was that everyone involved with the kids made it about the kids.” Even their dad, Michael Wells adds, “probably a big part of how the kids are doing is because they’ve had you know four heads are better than one or two when trying to raise kids.” Zachary said, “mom and dad are really good at making us feel like we are only children liking their own things and they guided us towards our own path.”
Speaking of their own paths…Landen Wells is a servant of God saying, “I have a ministry on Instagram and Snapchat. I’m hoping later on in the future I can start a business and be able to show people who Christ is. You can follow Landen on Instagram at Jesus_Saves_the_lost for his daily posts.
Jantzen Wells is headed to the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. “I plan on majoring in astronautical engineering, my first two years there will be in aerospace and then I plan on switching over to astronautical engineering and then graduating.” Jantzen heads to the Academy at the end of June.
Briley is a long time History buff and heads to Lubbock Christian University majoring in History. He says, “I’ve always had a passion for it, it’s always come easily to me and I’ve realized through history you can discover a whole lot of other things like politics and religion. I want to be a professor of Church History.”
Jaden plays Base guitar and is a musician. His plans are, “to attend South Plains College and study Commercial Music and play either Funk or Jazz bands and eventually teach at the college level.”
Zachary is also a musician and plays the Electric guitar. He says, “I plan to attend South Plains College in their Commercial music program and then later go to maybe North Texas for a music degree maybe major in Jazz.”
This group of brothers definitely has a strong bond and in talking to them they also like to pick on each other…Jaden said close to the end of the interview, “I look forward to when we are forty and we all come back for Christmas it will be interesting. Jantzens kids will all have buzz cuts, me and Zach’s kids will be outside with skateboards, and Briley’s kids will be reading books in the corner.” I can’t wait to see that in a couple of decades.
For their mom she says, “the biggest thing for me as a mom is watching them blossom to what God made them to be. And they’re good kids, they don’t get in trouble.”
We wish each of them the best as they embark on this new journey.