When you were younger, it was so much easier to see the changes from one year to the next. But in the last couple of years, the only significant changes are … well, hair colour. I wouldn’t say you’re old, and you’re never going to stop changing, but … you’ve grown up.
No, this isn’t a sudden realization – you were 12 going on 20, remember? That hasn’t changed, either – you’re still wildly more intelligent than many of your peers, not to mention a sizeable population percentage that believes intelligence is a fault of personality.
It’s been a rough semester for you so far, and there’s still a couple of months to slog through. Grade 10 is a lot harder than I think any of us would have thought. But that’s also because this is the first year you’ve not had to content with Spanish, but its legacy lingers and you’ve got to contend with that.
Not to mention invisible numbers. Talk about things I never expected you to have to face.
I think this year, more than any other, we’ve come to understand your thought processes – wait, that’s not accurate. We’ve started to understand your thought thought processes. There is so many beautiful, wonderful things going on in your head that we couldn’t hope to catch a glimmer of them, let alone say with a straight face that we “know” you. I might be able to predict a few things, but to say I can nail any thought 100% is complete fallacy. Maybe 50%, truthfully, 70% if I’m lucky.
And I wonder… 10 years from now, what will you be? What will you be doing? Regardless of my weird little dreams of your future when you were younger, it’s clear you’re going to be something to contend with. I suspect you won’t be the vocal front of the line. More likely, you’ll be the quiet strategist who sees the opportunities others don’t, the gaps in logic, the poor arguments.
Where that leads you is anyone’s guess right now. But the willfully ignorant should be taking notice: people like you are going to tilt the world back to balance. And I’m going to love being a part of it.
Happy birthday, kiddo!
