Teenagers are odd birds sometimes. Sometimes you wonder what they are thinking or you just have to shake your head at their decision process.
As parents you worry that they are progressing to become young adults and that you haven't screwed them up too much.
You look for signs of growth anywhere you can get it.
Then, you get a hint, a small glimpse of the future man hiding in there.
My son is starting his Junior baseball season. My daughter is a freshman. She comes home yesterday and tells us what the freshmen boys were telling her about the first round of baseball cuts.
She tells us two stories that tug at our heart strings.
1. Boy comes out for baseball having never played before. Parents spent hundreds of dollars on a glove and more on a bat. Kid literally struggles to play catch with the other players. Boy gets paired up with one of the more dominating seniors while doing a throwing drill, struggles mightily and some of the boys give him a hard time. She says they tell her my son heard it and stepped up in his defense. He told them to knock it off and switched with the senior and worked with the boy. He says nothing to us when asked how practice went that day.
2. Second boy was a borderline player and had a shot at making the team. Everyone knew the cuts would be posted on the locker room door around lunch time. The boys tell my daughter he sprinted down to the locker room to see if he made the team and was crushed when his name was not on the list. He was crying on the way back to the lunch room as he walked back by the group of boys that were on their way down to check the list.
Son comes home after practice and we ask him about the first boy. His tone is a low simmer. He tells us it was just the right thing to do. He knew the boy wasn't going to make the team but he obviously wanted to play baseball or he wouldn't have come out. He felt the kid didn't deserve to be treated that way so he stepped up.
Then my daughter re-tells him the story of the second boy. The reaction of my son is stunning. He melted. You could see it on his face and in his body langauge. He went from that low simmer of anger over the first boy to a state you might see if he just got word the dog died. Tears formed in his eyes. He said he hated hearing about players being cut. Wished there was a way to keep all the boys. He thought it was not fair that some kids got to play and others did not.
Momma got a hug. She took advantage of his weakened state and stole a hug. It was an awesome moment. One of those that leave a mark and last for ever.
