Halloween 2016: Dear Kill Joy...

Dear Lady One Neighborhood Over:

Tonight, Halloween Night, you opened your door, candy bowl in hand and saw a few young teens at your door.  "Trick or Treat," they said.  

You gave them the once-over:  the boy in the leather jacket with slicked back hair, the boy in the glow-in-the-dark skeleton hoodie, and another of their friends or two.  

Holding your precious bowl of candy, you said you would not give them any because, in your opinion, they (at age 13-14) were "too old" to trick or treat.  That's certainly your right.  At one time, I thought it strange to see teenage trick or treaters.  

But I've evolved.  I realized that these aren't kids looking to prank anyone, to smash their Jack o'lanterns, or to scare the little kids.  They just want to celebrate their youth a bit longer.

Understand this:  it's a scary world. As scary as it is for us adults, can you fathom how frightening it is to the next generation?  Terrorist attacks in the US and abroad. Multiple murders per day just 40 miles away.  The 2016 presidential election.  

Not to mention that kids today are under so much pressure to grow up.  Drugs, violence, sex, crime...  Kids are bombarded with messages that are counter to our family values.  They know this, and some of them want to hold on to their innocence a bit longer.  But tonight, you drew your in the sand over a three cent piece of candy.  As is your right.

However, at my house, kids of all ages are welcome to ring my bell on Halloween.  If these young adults/teens/tweens want to hold on to - and celebrate - their innocence one more October night, I celebrate that with them.

As mean as my son thought you were (because there was nothing kind about your words or your demeanor), he was even sadder for you...because he realized that if anyone who is "too old" for Halloween, it's you.  

In a blink of an eye (as soon as 4 short years), these young boys may be the EMT or police officer who responds to your call for help. He may be the young man who pulls over to assist when you have car trouble.  Who picks you up if you should fall, who helps you with a too-heavy package, who arrives with the fire crew to extinguish the grease fire on your stove, who shows up to fix your air conditioning on a 90+ degree summer day.  Rest assured that these boys -- because I know them -- will never give you the once-over and decide that you are "too old" to bother with.  (We, their parents, gave raised them better.)

Son #2 Update

Son #2 was in 3rd grade when I started this blog.  This is his senior photo (Class of 2015):

Because he took some dual-enrollment credits in high school (thus earning college credit), he already had approximately a semester's worth of college credits when he graduated high school last May.  His university offered the opportunity for him to take up to 6 credit hours tuition-free in the summer, which he did.  By the end of his fall semester, he was a sophomore.

He has been accepting in the school's nursing program (he'll earn a BSN) and if all goes well, he'll finish college/nursing school in 3 and a half years.  My wallet is happy about that.

He is a licensed Emergency Medical Technician but is not working as one since he's a full-time student.  He's not sure what he plans to do when he gets out of college.  Right now, he's drawn to EMT/paramedic stuff, but nursing school will give him exposure to other medical careers.

He and I have a standing appointment every two weeks to have lunch and go grocery shopping.  I wouldn't go so far as to say he's a Mama's Boy...more like he's easily bribed (food is a big motivator) to help me with a chore I despise.   I do enjoy the time together.

Son #1 Update

Because it's been a while since I posted, I thought I'd provide a little update as to what Son #1 has been up to.

He's 20 now and a junior in college.  He's doing great!  His seizures have been well managed over the past four years.  He's majoring in forensic anthropology and plays on his university's intramural, co-ed Quidditch team.  For those of you unfamiliar with Quidditch, it's a sport featured in the "Harry Potter" books/movies.  For those of you familiar with Harry Potter's Quidditch and wondering how in world it can be played by muggles (real folks), then check out this compilation video:

(That's Son#1 wearing black and yellow in the opening photo.  He's refereeing.)

This summer he'll have an internship at a police department crime lab. It's amazing to me that he was just 10 when I started this blog.  I'm sure he'd hate my disclosing this but he had his first real girlfriend and his first big heartbreak last year.  He spent a couple of days on the sofa bingeing on freeze pops, then shook himself off and carried on.

Since I didn't post much during his high school years, I'll mention that he excelled academically and had a great time on his cross country and wrestling teams (ultimately earned a varsity letter in both). Proud of this guy!

I"m a bad, bad blogger!

I know I've said that before.  More than once probably.  I'm not sure why I've more or less abandoned my blog other than I've enjoyed Facebook and I find using blogger with my phone or tablet challenging.  Never the less, I'm going to give this another go.

So let's catch up.  I'll start with the kids who have been the subject of many, many of my blog posts.  Stay tuned....