Happy 16th Birthday!!

Katherine, 

Today you turn sixteen. Sixteen?! My brain knows that this is true but in my imagination, I still see you as the sweet baby who completed our family. That said though, each milestone makes sense as you grow into the ‘old soul’ you have always been. Wise beyond your years and more mature than the numbers on the calendar reflect- this has always been you. 

Some day, these letters will no longer reflect the pandemic world in which you are coming of age but not this year. This week, we went to a 10th grade parent meeting at the high school. The meeting was meant to be our ‘welcome to high school meeting’- just another example of pandemic strangeness. Yours is the class that will have not had a proper welcome to the high school, never a proper freshman year. 

Perhaps this is part of why we are all so excited to celebrate your birthday this year. As an April birthday girl, your 2020 birthday marked one of the first ‘drive by parties.’ I can still feel the bittersweet-ness of standing in our front yard watching your friends and their families drive by- handmade posters and balloons flying out of sunroofs. I was so sad that this was how we would remember your 14th birthday but so grateful for the people who let you know that you were loved. Last year, you celebrated with a small group of friends, outside, mostly masked as we tiptoed back out into the world. 

Finally, this year, your celebrations are bigger. This weekend, I watched you with friends- old and new- smiling and laughing together. When you opened your presents from your friends, you were so happy. It wasn’t that you got a bunch of new things. It was that you felt seen. When you opened your gifts, you understood that your friends knew you, knew what you loved and how to make you smile. There is no greater gift in life than to be surrounded by people who know and love you for who you are. You have cultivated just that group of friends.

This year, your commitment and dedication to dance only grew. You stepped into new studios, worked with new teachers and choreographers and began singing and dancing at high school too. You accepted each new challenge with the talent, grace and never ending desire to grow that has come to define who you are as a dancer.

In school, you discovered a love of history and listening to you talk about your class discussions both make me want to go back to school and also make me grateful that you have found teachers and students who are challenging you to think about and discuss tough topics.

Things changed a lot in our small family when Caroline left for Richmond this fall. I know that being the sole focus on our attention at times is tough but you have handled it so well. 

So here’s to yet another year of happiness and growth. I love you so very much. 

Happy “sw een” sweet girl.