Dear son, you are 14 today.

Wow, time has flown. I have been doing this for a while now and every year it feels like you have grown and changed so much. Google Photos toys with my emotions every time it shows photos of you in your toddler years. I miss those days. Yet, the time your mother and I spend with you today as a teenager is precious in its own way and something we continue to enjoy a lot.

This year, the biggest change is that you grew taller than me and your mother. Yep, you are a big boy now. It's weird that I ask you to come get something that I can't reach. It feels like yesterday when I had you perched on my shoulders.

This past year, you moved to a private school for 8th grade. Your mother and I were worried about this transition for many reasons but the way you have adapted and embraced it is really fantastic. You made all the adjustments you needed to and took it a step further and really started enjoying the rigor. I could not have asked for more. I hope you are truly enjoying this as much as you seem to be.

Athletics has been at the periphery of your life and you have dabbled with a bunch of them to limited success. That you were able to persist and persevere and make it to your school volleyball team is not just a testament to your skill but your dogged determination. I am proud of you for that. Irrespective of how your team fared, that you took it up as a challenge and worked towards it was a big deal. 

Your musical journey continues to be the thing that brings the most joy to me. After a year of struggling to adjust to your new voice, you (and it) settled down this year and by gosh, it is such a pleasure to listen to you with this new voice. Your mother and I stop what we are doing when you are practicing. Such is the impact. In a year of significantly more academic work, you have doubled down on your music classes and also support your teacher in teaching younger kids. I really hope you continue to enjoy and cultivate this fine art form for many, many years to come. You also added jazz to your bass guitar repertoire and I am cautiously optimistic that you will continue to pursue it. 

Not everything has been smooth. This past year has been really hard. Last summer, at the peak of your break, you had a bad biking accident, resulting in a fracture in both hands and requiring surgery. The rest of the summer was a bust and it took you over 4 months to properly recover from it. Even today, it is not fully healed. I can't imagine the pain and frustration you went through. Yet, you smiled and made light of it. You didn't sit in your room and cry. Not once. You lost out on a bunch of opportunities and yeah, you were bummed but you just soldiered on. Your resilience in the face of adversity will be a strength to lean on as you grow.

While your obsession with Marvel movies continues unabated, I am glad you enjoyed watching Nolan’s Batman Begins. Before long, I will have you over on the dark side :) And it both sucks and is awesome that you have gotten better at button mashing your way against me on Mortal Kombat.

So you are lazy :) And you know, not really up to doing all the chores you are supposed to do. And you procrastinate like none other. But you are also a teenager and just turning 14. For all your warts, you make your mother and I incredibly proud of you. 

So happy birthday young man. Keep smiling. Remember to do your bed, put your socks for washing, your lunch box in the sink and go to bed on time.

Love you so much.

Appa