Dear TQ,

In the past few months, you’ve begun the long process of stretching your wings. Some of your decisions have resulted in some tension in our relationship, but I’m proud of the way that you’re choosing to work to regain our trust right now.

Last night, I watched you sing a beautiful solo with the advanced chorus—a chorus you technically shouldn’t have been placed in because of a lack of prior experience. You are never more beautiful to me than when you are singing. Your spirit shines in those moments, and I find myself breathless with awe that I get to be your mom.

I also saw you passed over for awards that you sacrificed for your commitment to your soccer team (All State and County Choir, Ensemble Festival). Despite the fact that you were ultimately not chosen for the State Cup team in soccer, I want you to know how proud we are of your dedication, hard work, and team loyalty. If effort and attitude alone could make an elite soccer player, you would have been playing for the national team this year. You have improved tremendously as a player, and no matter where the game takes you, I hope your love for it follows your throughout your lifetime as a player, a referee, a coach, and maybe even someday a soccer mom!

Today, your school recognized your straight “A” record for your eighth grade year. They chose not to recognize your three year “A” record, but only those of students who attended MWMS for their full middle school tenure. Despite this, know your record doesn’t go unrecognized—it won your entry into the IB program . Daddy, I, and everyone who loves you, choose to fully recognize your achievement today. You maintained a full load of advanced work while saddled with the disadvantages of being two years younger than your academic peers, moving cross-country, assuming the majority of daily direct care for your youngest brother during my cancer treatment, and dealing with the family stress surrounding your father’s job loss. If there was a special award for three year academic achievement despite tremendous obstacles, you’d be a shoo-in.

If you take nothing else away from this season of your life, know you begin your high school career with the knowledge that sometimes life is a raw deal. The only thing any of us “deserve” in life is death for our sins…praise God for his glorious plan of salvation! Good things aren’t always gifts, and bad things aren’t always punishments. They simply are what life hands us. This knowledge gives you the gift of resiliency. You know that life goes on, and the joys and sorrows of our everyday lives are trivial compared to the God’s glorious plan for you. Because you have experienced and overcome hardships and prejudice early in life, you will not be stymied by them later in life, but know not just how to soldier on when you encounter them in the future, but to encourage others who may be experiencing them for the first time.

Words fail to express how much we love you and how proud we are of you.
Love always,

Mom