A Fourteen Year Old is in My House

My son turns 14 today. Let’s discuss

This is wild to me. I feel like, just the other day, he was still a toddler asking me to help him with every little thing. He still asks, and from time to time, needs help, but not for everything. I do have to remind him to brush his teeth, make his bed and clean his room. Otherwise though, he gets more and more independent every single day. He has taken to walking or riding his scooter to and from school. Some days he walks with his buddies to some local fast food spot. I used to do the very same thing when I was his age, but this feels different. He is in his last year of middle school. The fact that he will be in high school in less than a year still blows my mind. Like I said, sometimes I still think of that toddler or baby that he used to be. But as he has gotten, the maturity has been great to watch. He used to be very hyper and bounce off the walls. All the way up until about 7th grade that was his way. But something must have clicked in his brain halfway through 7th grade because he has shown a massive amount of maturity and growth in less than two years. He still has mood swings and instances where he acts immature, but they are few and far between, and he is a teenager after all. Mood swings are part of that time in one's life. But he has been doing so much better with his school work. I used to have to keep tabs on him daily to make sure he was doing all of his work. I don't have to do that anymore. He is pretty much up to the task and he has, at last check, turned in all of his work. He has also become a better athlete and a more coachable athlete. I used to coach him in basketball, but this year he made it on a higher ranked team within the feeder program he plays in and I coach. He has a new set of coaches and they have done a wonderful job teaching him how to play and use his body the right way against better competition. He has even been asked a few times to play with the highest ranked team and he has held his own when he plays for the blue team. He is doing all the things I envisioned him doing when he played for me. I know part of that is the sheer fact that I don't coach him anymore, but also a part of it is his willingness and want to become a better player. He is going to have to beat out a bunch of other kids if he wants to play high school basketball next year, and I think that finally sunk in for him this season. He is having a very solid year playing up and that is because he is more willing to be coached. He finished off junior football this year as well, and while they didn't have the season they hoped for, he improved his game there as well. And the team he was on was more of a one for all, not all for one type team. I would pick him up from practice and he would complain about it to me. But he never complained to his coaches or called out any of his teammates. He didn't let his frustration boil over onto the field, and that is another massive sign of growth to me. He went to practice and games ready to get better everyday. And if a coach would ride him or chastise for something he felt was unjust, he would do as the coaches asked and try to make himself a better player. He has continued to workout for next season, his freshman year of football, and that can only help. He also asks me to take him to the workouts and tells me all about them afterwards. He wants to be better and he is taking some of the necessary steps to improve. This wouldn't have happened when he was 11 or 12. He is growing up. He also has a job, which was never on my radar at 14. He umpires baseball and, even though he was terrified during his first day, he improved every game after that and has become a reliable and dependable ump. He even did a few games last year where he had to call live balls and strikes, which is pretty tough for everyone involved in first year player pitch little league baseball.  The fact that he has to understand and deal with a schedule at 14 years old is pretty damn impressive if you ask me. He has grown in his taste of music and movies as well this past year. He still mostly listens to hip hop, which I did at his age and do to this day, but he has also been a little more forgiving of my music tastes. Instead of just dismissing my music he will say he gets why it's popular, it is just not for him. That is a good thing. I also have started taking him to see movies that I want to see. He and I saw "The Running Man" together and he loved it. My dad and I took him with us to see "Marty Supreme". He has asked me multiple times to take him to see "The Odyssey" when it comes out. He is starting to like the movies I like, and to me that means he will be my indie movie companion for years to come, which makes me happy.

It is great to see my son grow and become this teenager that he is blossoming into. He still has his little kid tendencies, but he also is more outgoing and more willing to try different stuff. He has always been a great student, but now he is taking accountability. He's becoming a better athlete. He is expanding his mind outside of his bubble he lives in. He is exploring new and different things. I want time to slow down, but I'm also very interested to see the adult he becomes.

Happy birthday buddy. I love you, can't wait to have the burgers you make tonight and can't wait to watch you grow into an adult. Enjoy it my dude. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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