Dear Artemis,

Your ninth grade school year is now complete. You had an excellent year, with near-perfect grades, new activities, and a generally pleasant disposition. When I can get you to hang out longer than the time it takes to finish a cream soda at family cocktail hour, I always enjoy chatting with you. You have funny and interesting observations about the world, and you’re teaching me some French. You spend a lot of time holed up in your room, but you seem happy and interested in engaging with us when you do emerge. You recently finished up the driving portion of your Drivers’ Ed class and are making progress through the online portion. While you didn’t pass your instructor’s rigorous final exam, all that really means is that you’ll have to take it again at the DOT when you turn sixteen. That will give you a lot more time to practice. I think the main issue was that you got your permit very shortly before starting the class, and you just don’t have enough driving hours under your (seat)belt yet to feel confident and smooth behind the wheel. Your teacher told us that you made great progress during the class, and in fact the DOT test is easier than his. I was hoping you could avoid doing a driving test around your birthday in January, but that’s the way it goes.

This year’s marching band experience will be more intense than last year’s. They take it easier on freshmen, but sophomores and beyond attend the whole week. It’s a lot of intensive work, much of it outside in the August heat. You say you’re dreading it, and knowing your personal threshold for physical discomfort, that doesn’t surprise me. However, during your last band concert, each senior got to contribute his or her favorite memory from the band years. Many students cited marching band camp memories, so I hope you find the same kind of positivity in it that those kids did. Sometimes great friendships can be forged in challenging times. I think you already know and get along with a lot of band kids, but going through the band experience with them may solidify your bonds.

You’ll definitely need to be fitted for a new band uniform. You’ve grown a lot this year. It wasn’t super evident to me in your first and last day of school photos, but you got invited to go swimming with a friend yesterday with about twenty minutes’ notice, and last year’s swimsuit didn’t fit. You ended up wearing a pair my cover-up swim shorts, which looked slightly goofy, but fit you better than your old suit. I’m glad we noticed that now, because we’ve got a trip coming up that will require swimsuits. This way I had time to order a couple of new pairs in bigger sizes. I’m not sure what your official height is these days. You have an appointment coming up with the orthopedist to check on your scoliosis, and I imagine we’ll see then. I am hopeful that your curve has held steady throughout this period of growth. You are probably close to reaching your full height, by which time we’ll be out of the danger zone for curve change. As long as it’s not significantly worse, you can avoid surgery and maybe even stop wearing your brace or reduce your bracing hours.

I’m very proud of you for wearing your brace as well as you have. It can’t be comfortable, but you don’t ever complain. It’s probably getting too small, too. Maybe you’ll get a new one fitted at your next appointment. Your dad says he had two braces over his bracing period, although that was a long time ago, and his case ended up in surgery. His was a lot more severe than yours, so I’m optimistic that your great bracing habits and the improvements in bracing technology in the past few decades will set you on a straight-spined path.

You went back to your former elementary school to be a judge for the spelling bee. This is the first time since 2020 that the spelling bee has occurred. It was probably a bit strange for you to be sitting on the other side of the judges’ table, but you did a great job. You had the privilege of awarding a victory to Callum’s team. Over in the media center, Tobin’s team also won. It will be very exciting to see our family so prominently displayed on the winners’ plaque. I was really happy that you agreed to be a judge, since it’s an event that was so important to you during your elementary school years. You were fair and accurate, and I hope you come back and do it again next year.

Your current favorites: playing Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, cream soda, late night snacks of Goldfish and Honey Nut Cheerios, sleeping in late, avoiding showers until I pester you into taking one, online chess, pasta, driving me around to do errands, the TV shows Lost, Breaking Bad, and The Simpsons, and changing your socks more often than I expect a person to change socks. I do a lot of sock laundry.

But that’s okay. I’m just glad you’re usually wearing fresh clothes.

Love,

Mom