My dear Artemis,

You’ve been fifteen for a full month now, and it seems like you’re settling into it pretty well. We’ve been talking about getting you signed up for Drivers’ Ed in the summer in anticipation of your sixteenth birthday. That doesn’t seem possible, and of course you still have almost a year before that particular milestone hits, but this summer is the best time to get the class done. It’s time to start getting our summer schedule sorted out, so we have to figure out how that will work. You have some activities in August—band camp and miniatures camp (a special session of the same animation camp you’ve gone to many times before, this one with a focus on building miniature sets for films). We have a family vacation planned for June, so I guess we’ll try to get Drivers’ Ed done in the July timeframe. It’s nice that we don’t, as far as I know, need to think about any big medical events for you. Last July we were gearing up for your parotid gland surgery, and I’m grateful to have that off our radar now.

You mentioned that you have feeling in your ear again. The surgeon warned us that you could have nerve damage to your ear on the side where they removed the parotid tumor. A greater risk was damage to major nerve that provides movement to your face, so we were very grateful to know that you had no problems in that area. A little ear numbness was an acceptable hazard, and it seems that it was temporary.

Next week you have a big event: a trip to the Tallgrass Jazz Festival at the University of Northern Iowa. You get to miss a day of school for it, which of course is exciting, and I hope you have a good time. Those kind of events were always a lot of fun for me as a kid. You’ve also started planning your schedule for the next school year. It’s strange that parents have no input in the process; you just came home from school one day and said you had picked out your schedule. Apparently each subject area teacher gives guidance on which course to choose for the upcoming year. I know your American Studies teacher suggested that you take the honors/AP offering for a sophomore social studies course, and I hope your English teacher did the same. You plan to continue with band and French, as well as an advanced graphic design class and some kind of sculpture class. It’s great how many opportunities you have to explore different subjects, and you’ve found some teachers who really inspire and challenge you.

Despite the predictable winter doldrums, you’ve been a good sport about walking to and from school. In fact, you would probably never ask for a ride. If you have jazz band before school I drive you, but you do the walking unless the weather is truly awful. In fact, even then I have to suggest giving you a ride, and it’s a bit of an effort to talk you into it. I think the walk is important social time for you, as you usually do it with a friend or two. That’s valuable, but it’s also valuable to have feeling in your legs, since you never want to wear anything heavier than sweatpants. At least you wear a coat. A lot of kids your age don’t. One curious thing is that you never use your locker. You have one assigned, but I’m not sure you’ve ever visited it. That would absolutely not have been an option for me at your age, as all my classes required enormous textbooks. Now, I think you do most of your coursework on your Chromebook. It’s no larger than any one of my school textbooks, so most kids just carry a backpack (and coat, for those smart enough to wear one) to all their classes.

One benefit to this is that you haven’t lost your lunchbag all year. I don’t know how many times we had to replace your lunchbag during elementary school, because something about the process of putting it away after lunch eluded you. I don’t know if they ended up in the school lost and found (we looked there many times), in someone else’s hands, or in the school dumpster. In any case, now that you always have your backpack with you, you always bring home your lunch bag. You haven’t lost your phone yet, either. Let’s cross our fingers that your responsible streak is a personality trait and not a phase.

We had a nice family outing last weekend. There’s a big art installation in the Ped Mall right now with inflated rabbits, and the little kids were really excited to check those out. I needed to go to the library and the Co-op, so we decided to make a partial day of it. You were a good sport and not too cool to climb around a bit on the new playground by the library. I can feel the years rushing by, especially knowing that your status as a licensed driver will surely take you away from me more than I like. I’m trying to appreciate the time we have together while still encouraging you to grow, develop, and explore your interests. You decided against auditioning for the school musical, but you signed up to work on the crew. I hope that’s a fun experience for you. I know a few of your friends are doing that as well, and that can be a very meaningful effort and community.

Your current favorites: creating Scratch games with and for Callum and your friends, discussing Romance languages with me, pasta, Doritos, sleeping late, avoiding your hairbrush, root beer, cream soda, Minecraft, chatting with your friends, and being funny in your acerbic way.

I had a memory recently come up from your preschool days. I said that my favorite time of the day was when I lifted you up onto the kitchen counter to take off your boots, because I could hug you without you running away. I guess it’s not necessarily your age that makes you a minimal snuggler, just how you’ve always been. Still, I enjoy exchanging glances with you at the dinner table when one of us makes a joke that most of the rest of the family doesn’t get. Those are brain hugs, and I know we still have plenty of those ahead of us.

Love,

Mom