Fab 15!

Happy birthday Lincoln!  What a fast and furious year this has been.  “Growing up” seems too simple a phrase, but that is exactly what happened over the last 12 months…you have grown by leaps and bounds!

You are physically 3+ inches taller, 2 shoe sizes bigger, now wearing a men’s size small, and shaving; expanding your interests to include Ultimate Frisbee, Reddit reviews, and thriller/horror books and movies; and mastering German grammar and saxophone licks, to give a few examples! You are your own person with strong opinions, a biting adult wit, and incredible strength.

Last summer zipped by, with you serving as a counselor-in-training at the Niskayuna Summer Playground Camp every morning, with the goal to be invited back as a Junior Counselor Volunteer this summer.  You netted that invitation in February, and then in March were asked to instead be a full-fledged (and paid!) Counselor in their summer camp program.  We are so proud of you and the responsibility and skills you showed to garner this opportunity.  The kids attending will be lucky to have you to look up to and play games with, and we are sure you will make it fun and set a great example for them to follow.

You also enjoyed your first summer sleep-away camp experience at Bristol Hills Music Camp.  While you hemmed and hawed about going, you ended up having a great time with your Scotland Forever cabinmates…pranking your counselors, learning to play guitar, and enjoying both the jazz band and vocal ensembles.  I know you are already making plans for another fun week in August!  Other free summer weekends were spent enjoying South Lake with your cousins, where you now have no fear at Jumping Off Rock (which of course terrifies me!). I get that it is totally normal for your teenage brain, but that doesn’t help me worry less.

Speaking of worrying, I confess to being a bit nervous as you started high school in light of your bizarre middle school pandemic experience.  I questioned whether you were prepared for the rigors of 9th grade, with longer classroom instruction, lots more homework, many weekly quizzes.  Plus, you took a full and challenging course load, to include an intense German 1-2 course, where you were taught two years of curriculum over 10 months.  So Dad and I held our breath, raised our eyebrows, and waited to see how things would go.  We were so pleased that you quickly figured out, for the most part (ahem, online geometry homework deadlines), time management, degree of effort, and meeting teachers’ expectations.  You did a great job on all of your final exams and definitely showed us that you are academically motivated but also measured—a healthy balance that I envy. 

To help with balancing the academic rigors, we started private sax lessons this year (so that you weren’t pulled weekly from a class).  There was fortunately an opening in the private studio of the high school stage band director, and under his direct instruction your playing has reached new heights.  Your interest and commitment to the alto sax resulted in the purchase of a Mad Meg Cannonball for Christmas; it has an amazing tone and resulted in many featured solos at stage band concerts this year.  You’ve been invited to join the High School Jazz Ensemble next fall… it will be interesting as they’d like for you to play bari, since the two alto spots are tightly held by seniors.  We have no doubt that with their graduation next June you and Mad Meg will again wow the crowds.

Outside the classroom you logged countless miles running the field for Ultimate Frisbee.  Your technique has improved tremendously, and your moves on offense and defense helped your team finish their first season super strong.  You’ve found your voice as a leader, setting up affirmative stacks and coordinating the cups defense, as well as leading team cheers and promoting the Spirit of the Game.  It is so much fun to watch you from the sidelines and see the sheer joy you have playing the game. No surprise that your teammates elected you as Spirit Captain next year!  One result of all the running this year was a serious focus on getting enough calories in you to support all that you burn, especially as you grew taller, and taller, and taller. While you and I have not seen eye-to-eye in this area (although we are in fact now literally eye to eye!),  I appreciate you acknowledging that more needs to fill your tank beyond make-your-own pizzas, monster bacon burgers, and any kind of Little Debbie treat.  I love you so much and want to see you happy, active and healthy.

Speaking of active, your gaming prowess also continued on Xbox, with you and your friends having outrageous campaigns, fierce trash-talk, and lots of “bruh!!!!” exclamations seeping out the air vents. Your core group, while fiercely competitive, still gets along despite the online assassinations, abandonment, and domain destruction that occurs. I smile when I hear you cheer or catch you doing a victory dance, and am glad that you balance hours playing in the basement with in-person pizza, bike riding, football, frisbee, and Pokemon Go with your friends.

All in all, Lincoln, it has been quite a remarkable year for you. While you sometimes embrace teendom in all of its antagonizing, eye-rolling, button-pushing, selective-hearing, smart-aleck glory, you are also figuring out limits, boundaries, and unconditional love, which should serve you well as you continue to mature.  I hold tight to our morning breakfast prep, car talks, dinner round-tables, and bedtime check-ins, where you often offer a fresh perspective on the trials we find ourselves in as a nation, community, family, and mother-son relationship.  It can be complicated and messy as we hash things out, but at its core is love.

I really hope you have a fabulous 15th birthday, you disc-flinging, shower-singing, joke-saying, sax-playing, German-speaking, snack-eating, Stephen King-reading, Ultimate team-leading, Xbox-slaying, bedtime-delaying awesome teen!  I am fortunate to be your mom and will always love you to the moon and back!