Dear Miles,

You have now completed the seventh grade. You actually went to school today for a last-day party, and you seemed to have a good time. You hung out with old friends and connected with some new ones whom you had only met online before. You ate a snow cone and were cheerful when I picked you up. You insisted on wearing a hooded sweatshirt even though it’s ninety degrees outside.

What a year it’s been. I never expected you to spend less than your full K-12 experience in anything but a traditional public school environment, but here we are. It hasn’t been easy on you. Because you only had a Zoom with each class every other day, you were expected to do a lot of work that would ordinarily be completed during classtime during “asynchronous” time. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, you used most of your asynchronous study time sleeping. That made for a lot of late-night work, which was mostly okay, except we realized a couple of weeks ago that you were far behind in a couple of subjects. I did some  asking around to other parents of online junior high students, and it’s a very common situation. It was pretty frustrating, though, because I kept thinking you were on track. Every night before bed, I’d stick my head in your room and ask you if you’d finished your homework. You always said yes, and I didn’t think to double-check whether you actually had or not. I don’t know if it was an honesty issue or a confusion about how to do things coupled with reluctance to ask for help, but it became a substantial problem.

Fortunately, we caught it in time that you were able to rally and get your work made up. You ended the semester with very good grades, and I hope you’ve learned enough this year that next year will go okay. It was a year that gave you many opportunities to learn about topics far beyond the course content: you were challenged beyond your limits in terms of personal organization and responsibility, and it’s a really good thing your teachers were mostly understanding and flexible about letting you make up work.

It will be interesting to compare online seventh grade to in-person eighth grade, in terms of your academic and social development. It’s such a time of change, and I hope you navigate it okay. As I was waiting for you at school today, I saw you leave the building next to a very tall kid. It’s obvious that this life stage is one of great variation, and you looked so little next to him. I couldn’t tell for sure if you were hanging out with him or if you were just leaving at the same time, so when you got to the car, I asked if you knew him. “You mean Jacob?” you asked, referring to your long-time best friend.

Apparently Jacob has gone through some personal development over the last year that I missed. I’ve heard his voice through your computer plenty of times, as he’s part of the group you often chat with. I noticed his voice had gotten lower, but I didn’t realize his looks had changed so drastically. It makes me wonder what else is happening with your friends that’s completely off my radar.

You seem very relieved to be done with the school year. You have most of June free, then you have a couple of camps in July and August. A big piece of news for you is that you got both your doses of the Pfizer vaccine this month, and in another week, you will have reached fully-vaccinated status. That’s what made us feel confident signing you up for in-person camps. This may be the last year you’re eligible for your favorite FilmScene animation camp, and I’m really glad you’ll be able to do it. You’ve also chosen to attend Audition Bootcamp, a preparatory class for future auditions. You really wanted to try out for the teen musical a local theater puts on most summers, but the pandemic derailed this year’s and last year’s. Maybe with this audition workshop under your belt, you’ll be in better shape for the summer of 2022.

Though you would prefer to be in your room at all times, we’ve managed to drag you outside a few times to enjoy cocktail hour on the balcony. It’s been too hot to be out much lately, but maybe we’ll get a few moderate days before the full blast of summer hits us. I enjoy taking walks with you, and even though you grumble a lot through the process of putting on shoes and leaving the house, once we’re out, we often have good talks. I hope to get us all to the pool a few times before the season is out as well.

I’ve been doing a few things with Family Folk Machine lately, and it’s not quite the same without you. You’ve been by my side, sometimes literally and sometimes elsewhere in the room, the entire time I’ve been involved with FFM. Maybe this fall you’ll be able to get involved again. We did a virtual session this spring, and considering how much of your week you already spent on Zoom sessions, I felt it was too much to ask for you to join in on those. We expect to practice outdoors this fall, and I hope you will attend. I don’t think I would want your unvaccinated little brothers there, and in some ways it would be nice for it to be just the two of us, like the old days.

Your current favorites: Minecraft, pasta, staying up late, sleeping in late, texting with your friends, going to bed with wet hair, and Honey Nut Cheerios.

I’m tired, you’re tired, but we’ve made it through the school year. Let’s take some time to rest, because before we know it, we’ll be psyching ourselves up for the next challenge. It never really ends, does it? It just changes.

I love you, and that won’t change. Happy summer, Miles.

Love,

Mom