From Nephew to Butterfly
Nephew #2 is graduating high school and the world had better be ready.
The boy who couldn’t keep his shoes tied or complete a sentence with correct grammar to save his life is planning a Colorado trip with his own four-wheeler. How is it that life provides so much accomplishment from such humble (and funny!) beginnings?
At four, he was hot stuff in the plastic car we called the Big Banana. Bright yellow with four wheels and two steering bars, it could burn plastic on the pavement in any gear his little legs felt like churning! He wouldn’t quite fit in it now.
The financial schemes started before his teens and got wilder through junior high. Recycling, hauling, selling, trading - there was no end to his imagination to make a fast buck and set up his future, help his whole family, solve all the world’s problems.
Summer camp in high school provided the molding aunts, uncles, and cousins could not. People became his interest instead of "things" and friendships filled his plans instead of riches. Emails, airplane trips, and drives to gospel meetings were significant now because of who lived on the other end.
College? I can’t wait to see what this experience causes him to unleash on the world. If he continues to develop at his present pace it will be a fascinating butterfly stepping on to the scene at the other end.
And I think of the problems he had as a child. No patience. Interrupting. Getting spankings for not taking naps when he should. Parental consultations with the school nurse. Frustration at subjects he did not get as quickly as friends did. Scoldings for talking back to his parents when he thought he knew more than they. Living on the budget of a preacher’s family and not having all the latest gadgets of every other kid on the block. The list goes on and on.
And I think of how these "problems" have made him so much better than so many. He doesn’t take his four-wheeler for granted. He calculates trips into how many hours he has to work to afford the gas. He finds other summer campers who have struggles and befriends them. The young man makes me proud.
I walk into my classroom of sixth graders and see a room full of my nephew. Some have problems less severe than he, and some have those that are more. I redirect the one in the back putting map pencils up his nose, but before I give up on him completely, I remember - my nephew used to do that!
The boy who couldn’t keep his shoes tied or complete a sentence with correct grammar to save his life is planning a Colorado trip with his own four-wheeler. How is it that life provides so much accomplishment from such humble (and funny!) beginnings?
At four, he was hot stuff in the plastic car we called the Big Banana. Bright yellow with four wheels and two steering bars, it could burn plastic on the pavement in any gear his little legs felt like churning! He wouldn’t quite fit in it now.
The financial schemes started before his teens and got wilder through junior high. Recycling, hauling, selling, trading - there was no end to his imagination to make a fast buck and set up his future, help his whole family, solve all the world’s problems.
Summer camp in high school provided the molding aunts, uncles, and cousins could not. People became his interest instead of "things" and friendships filled his plans instead of riches. Emails, airplane trips, and drives to gospel meetings were significant now because of who lived on the other end.
College? I can’t wait to see what this experience causes him to unleash on the world. If he continues to develop at his present pace it will be a fascinating butterfly stepping on to the scene at the other end.
And I think of the problems he had as a child. No patience. Interrupting. Getting spankings for not taking naps when he should. Parental consultations with the school nurse. Frustration at subjects he did not get as quickly as friends did. Scoldings for talking back to his parents when he thought he knew more than they. Living on the budget of a preacher’s family and not having all the latest gadgets of every other kid on the block. The list goes on and on.
And I think of how these "problems" have made him so much better than so many. He doesn’t take his four-wheeler for granted. He calculates trips into how many hours he has to work to afford the gas. He finds other summer campers who have struggles and befriends them. The young man makes me proud.
I walk into my classroom of sixth graders and see a room full of my nephew. Some have problems less severe than he, and some have those that are more. I redirect the one in the back putting map pencils up his nose, but before I give up on him completely, I remember - my nephew used to do that!