“Today’s chicken nuggets for lunch!” my son exclaimed this morning, which was the beginning of his last full day as an eleven-year-old. He was eating breakfast, but already thinking about lunch as he sat at the table with his brother and sister, the three of them just shaking off the last bits of sleep.“I’m buying today,” he said.“Do you have money?” I asked.His excitement disappeared. “No, but mom said I could buy.”I’d just begun making lunches while the three of them ate their breakfast, but I’d gotten no further thank taking out six slices of bread. “I’ll have to go get some cash,” I told him, secretly hoping that he’d say something like, “Oh, that’s too much trouble. Just make me a sandwich.”Eleven year olds don’t think like that.Instead he pumped his fist and snarled, “Yes! Their chicken nuggets are so good.” This is his eighteenth day of middle school. He’s never bought lunch in middle school before. I have no idea how he knows that their chicken nuggets are so good.I got some cash and gave him three dollars. (By the way, say what you want about its nutritional value, but is there a better deal on earth than school lunches? For $2.25 the kid got chicken nuggets, mashed potatoes & gravy, steamed carrots, a hot roll, and a half pint of milk. For $2.25!)At the dinner table he told me that the chicken nuggets were even better than the ones at elementary school. And he’s not the only one who thinks they’re delicious. He traded a chicken nugget to another kid in exchange for a cookie and a few Goldfish crackers! Chicken nuggets are the middle school equivalent of prison cigarettes.I’ll never forget that the middle school has good chicken nuggets because of how enthusiastic my son was about it this morning.
His enthusiasm is one of my favorite qualities about him. He gets very excited about so many different things. Of course, he shows enthusiasm about things that everyone gets excited about: birthdays, holidays, vacations, new video games. But he’s also just as likely to get excited about staying up late, bite size shredded wheat cereal, or a new episode of Extra, the television show.This enthusiasm is nothing new. It’s always been part of his personality. From birth until he was about eight or nine-years-old his arms would wave wildly when he talked or thought about something that excited him. He literally looked like a bird trying to fly. Every now and then he’ll still do the arm waves, and like always, he doesn’t even realize he’s doing it.He plays Pokemon and has memorized the names and types and characteristics of pretty much every Pokemon that exists. (There are many hundreds of them!) He also begins to talk very fast when he’s excited. So if he’s excited about Pokemon and telling us about some Pokemon character, we often won’t be able to understand a word he’s saying, between the speed of his speech, and the nonsensical names of most Pokemon. (Charizard!)This is the last year before he becomes a teenager, and I hope he doesn’t lose his enthusiasm in his teen years. There’s something so innocent and lovely about the way he finds excitement and fun in so many things. If he resorts to the stereotypical teenage attitude of annoyance and unimpressiveness with practically everything, I’ll feel a little dispirited myself.He’s quite an individual. He likes what he likes and he doesn’t care what others think. It doesn’t matter if someone else doesn’t like Pokemon. Or if most people think of plush toys being for younger kids. Or if Weird Al Yankovic isn’t pop music. He likes it, and it doesn’t matter to him whether you like it, or you think he’s silly for liking it.We’ll celebrate his birthday this weekend, and when we go out to dinner he’ll make sure the waitress knows it’s his birthday in case she wants to bring him a free dessert or get her co-workers to sing to him. And he’ll revel in all the little ways we recognize his day.And without even trying, he’ll pass some of that enthusiasm on to us, and as we watch him smile, and maybe see his arms wave a little bit, we’ll be reminded of everything that’s truly important.Enter your e-mail address below and we'll send new Dry it in the Water posts directly to your inbox!
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