Ryan turned 14 the beginning of this month. Unless you have a 14 year-old, you may not understand. This age has kind of freaked me out!
We went to a fireside last night . It was the Trek Kick Off. Yep. My son is going on Trek this year. And guess what? Dustin and I get to go with him. At first we were to be a Ma and Pa, but Dustin got his new calling and they want him to go to all the families and get to know all the young men. This left me wondering what I would be doing. I'm still wondering. They say I'm still going. I will serve anywhere. I just want to be with my husband and son who have never experienced Trek before!
Ryan says he doesn't want to go. That made me sad. I asked why. He said it was because they were requiring the youth to dress the part. That means pioneer attire. He doesn't want to be wearing khakis in the middle of July. I can understand that. I was wearing jeans in the Nevada desert on my Trek. We talked about attitude- we talk about that a lot lately. Hopefully he warms up to the idea. But, he's still going. He'll thank me later.
Having young men in the house has really changed the dymnamic of our house. I guess not the house, just our parent-child relationship. It's hard to figure out. Sometimes I wonder if it will click. I always told myself I would enjoy when my kids are bigger, I enjoy it. It's just different than I imagined.
Ryan is a good kid. He is trying so hard to be himself. He's still trying to figure it out. I know once he knows who he wants to be, no stopping him! I'm excited for his future.
Monday, January 16, 2012
14 and Growing
Posted by Larae Taylor Merritt at 8:56 PM
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2 comments:
Our ward is doing the trek this year also- is it the same everywhere? Part of me is glad Lexi will be 15-16 when she goes... maybe a little past the rougher years I hear that happen with these teens. Will he have to do the chicken thing- chop the head, boil, pluck, then cook and eat?? My friends here think it's crazy we had to do that on ours. But I think it made it more real to me. I loved all of it- the only things i didn't care so much about was the mush we were given for breakfast, and the stinking rain storm we had that night. But with out those things I never would have appreciated crappy weather the pioneers had to endure.
Ryan is a great kid- I think it's so hard to figure out who you are, do we ever figure it out? I feel like we keep evolving. He's always been such a good and smart boy- and come one- he's got you and Dustin as parents, he'll be jsut fine!!
Wow, Alissa had adventures on her Trek that I don't recall. I remember the mush, but not the rain or chicken. Maybe that was the year after I was out of the house.
I can completely relate to everything you're saying about Young Men, attitudes, and the parent-child relationship. It's quite a challenge for me some days lately. Most recently, I've had to look at the fine line between "babying" your children and "protecting" them because Derek thinks I'm on a different side of that line than I do.
I'm sure Ryan is a GREAT Young Man! (Derek is, too, thankfully). But, it is definitely different than I imagined as well. Good luck! You're awesome! Love you!
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