DIRTY BOOBIES

DIRTY BOOBIES

I would love to share some profound thought with you today, but instead I give you dirty boobies. Yes, dirty boobies.

My son is turning 12 this September, and he will be in middle school in one week. I have been amazed by this fact. I don’t know when my little boy turned into an almost man.

The other day, my father took my children and some of their cousins on a  short hike and let them play in the mud and swim in the river.  He captured a short video clip of my son putting mud on his chest to form boobs and laughing hysterically with his male cousins, who are also middle school boys.

The crazy thing is something about this moment made me proud.

It was a rite of passage.

He is suddenly aware of something besides legos, Minecraft, and sports. I feel a weird mix of pride, worry, and possibly a touch of sadness.

I have spent 10 years teaching middle school children. It is an exciting, fun age. Their world is a combination of childlike innocence and new found adult understandings. The boys who walk through the doors of middle school the first day of 6th grade are often gangly young men when they leave at at the end of 8th grade.

My sweet, mostly innocent boy will also follow this path.

With a men’s size 10.5 shoe, there is no doubt he will look the part of a man far before he is ready to be one.

I pray he never loses his sweetness, his ability to play, or his faith and that he gains strength, deep friendships, and discernment.

Middle school, here we come…. dirty boobies and all!