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| Happy (belated) birthday to you |
I don't often write about you, Felix, because you make me intensely
proud and I find pride embarrassing. Also, it doesn't make for good copy:
you have a 4-and-then-some GPA, you're a captain of the MTB team, you’re
handsome and well-spoken and have rizz…but see here we’ve fallen into
boasting, and besides, Brekkie readers know these things
already, surely? I’ll have to dig deeper. And what’s deeper than pride?
Respect.
I respect your adventurousness. You throw yourself out of
bed before dawn to go rampaging across the fog-bound coastlands, spend summer weeks battling deadly thistle, think nothing of a 50
mile bike ride or a 10 foot ski jump. You've gutted wild boar, gavelled unruly Fairfax residents into submission, attended private school socials on boats in the Bay. Your mud-spattered face, your (formerly mine)
wrecked outdoor gear, your often (not that I look often) surprising location on Find My: it
all speaks so well of you.
I respect your resilience. You face challenges squarely and with great determination. In the face of
adversity you turn quickly to solutions or to other matters altogether where something is broken that you can’t fix. You've long since learned not to add to your own troubles with worry or
self-incrimination or even, your brother excepted, with blame. You do not dwell: you spring back, move on, find a way around.
I respect your entrepreneurial spirit. You've created your own tutoring and bike instruction businesses, plotted your own path through high school and our local community college. From your early "like this is around?" attempts to dress yourself to yesterday's "off skiing, see you," you scoff at obstacles and for the most part that's because for you they really are not there.
I respect your social presence. You show care for your peers, accept roles of responsibility and mentorship willingly, and have a light-handed ability
to influence and lead others. You are appreciated by adults and kids alike and are a social fixture even at high schools you don't attend. You know how to have a good time and are yourself quite fun. I would be happy to have you as a friend.
Finally, and not least, I enormously respect your ability to skip stones. Really, you are amazingly good at it.
Felix, you are a top student, a gifted athlete, friend
to many, and as best I can tell a sought-after candidate boyfriend. You are
kind to animals and small people and to yourself. You love learning, are deeply curious about the
world, and have great intellectual capacity. You are charismatic and, in that
overused college application phrase, a born leader. You have direction and
ambition and you, and I, have every reason to think you will be able to achieve your lofty goals. Most important, from my selfish point of view, you are a good son and brother. All of which is a great puzzle to me for I was hardly any of
these things at your age and am not many of them even now. Respect.
