My dear Sweet-Art,

We are now on your last month as an eighth-grader, your last month as a junior high student. Obviously your junior high experience, especially your seventh-grade year, was unusual, but overall it’s been good for you. You’ve gotten excellent grades, made some good new friends, and had a generally pleasant demeanor. I’m honestly surprised and impressed with how well the whole thing has gone. You’re taking an art class this trimester that you’re really enjoying, and you’re still having fun at Geek Club. Band seems to be going well, too. Your final concert of the year is coming up. A week or two ago, I was singing “Come and Get Your Love” to myself in the kitchen as you ate your bedtime snack, and you said, “Hey, we’re playing that in band.” You’re doing a medley of songs from the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack, and there are a lot of great songs on that list. You were excited because the trombones get to do the ooga-chucka part in “Hooked on a Feeling.” It is obviously the best part.

You’re also playing trombone on a couple of songs for the Family Folk Machine concert next weekend. That was all I could get you to commit to doing. You don’t really have a cohort there these days. Most of the teen presence has atrophied, and hanging out with the young kids doesn’t feel quite right either. I understand that not all activities are suitable for all life stages, so I’m glad you at least are able to join in with the band.

Next fall I’ll be watching you on the football field in marching band. I have learned that freshmen only play before the game, not at halftime, which reduces the pressure on me to stay for an entire football game. I know that will change, but for the first year, I’m happy to pay my admission and motor after the freshman band. I’ll have to start clutching my pearls as other people’s kids risk traumatic brain injuries next year.

Your dad and I went to Mexico last week for a wedding on his side of the family, and Mubby and Skitter came to take care of you and your brothers. I know that grandparents tend to see things through grandparent-colored glasses, but they both went on and on about what good kids you were. They cited specific examples, including your politeness and ability to take your dinner dishes to the dishwasher. They noted that you seem happy and friendly. I felt so proud of you when they told me those things. I know the teenage years aren’t the easiest, but the fact that I could trust you to be a kind and helpful human being is a wonderful feeling. I know that I will love you even through the hard times, and of course your grandparents will too, but I’m still glad everything went smoothly.

Your health has been causing some stress this month. When you had your scoliosis MRI, the radiologists noted a growth on your parotid gland, which is a salivary gland located under your right ear. Nobody seemed too concerned about it, but they suggested we get an ultrasound to better assess it. We did that, and once again nobody seemed too concerned, but they suggested a second ultrasound three months later to make sure it hadn’t grown. Well, it grew. After that, people started seeming considerably more concerned. While it’s true that most parotid tumors are benign, the exception is in adolescents, when they’re more likely to be cancerous. They scheduled you for a biopsy, which involved full sedation and a few hours at the Children’s Hospital. You hadn’t been to the Children’s Hospital since shortly after your birth when you were admitted for jaundice. The nurse who was getting you prepared asked if you’d had blood draws before, and you said you couldn’t remember. She looked at your file and said, “Yes, you have, in 2008.” That was when you were zero, so I don’t blame you for not having a clear memory of the event.

Regardless, you did great during the procedure. You got to watch part of a Pixar movie, which is one of your favorite things to do, and you had no problem with the procedure or the anesthesia. We were extremely relieved to get the biopsy results, which were that you have a benign pleomorphic adenoma. While the tumor is benign, it has the potential to turn cancerous, so the doctors advised that you have it removed. We have an appointment next week to talk to the surgeon and figure out the details. One tricky aspect of your case is that a major facial nerve runs through the parotid gland, and your particular tumor is deep in the gland, which means a risk of nerve damage. I’ve learned since then that the nerve damage isn’t necessarily permanent, so that’s good. We’re really hoping to get the surgery done early in the summer so you can have maximum recovery time before things like animation camp, band camp, and school start in August.

It would be a true tragedy if you couldn’t do this anymore.

Your current favorites: planning a D&D game and building characters with your friends, which you swear will actually happen one of these days; Minecraft and Super Mario Maker; pasta; hanging out with your friends after school; root beer; ice cream (premium vanilla is your favorite of the moment); playing with Callum; and wearing clothes that, to me, seem too hot for the weather. We’re in a heat wave right now, and yet you still wear long sleeves and sweatpants. I guess your school is air conditioned, but it seems miserable for the walk home. I try to keep my nose out of your non-critical life choices, so I just do a lot of laundry.

I’m proud of you every day, my beloved. Thank you for making me a mom and for continuing to be a smart, mostly kind, and always interesting person.

Love,

Mom