Years ago, I witnessed a “formal” interview between my 4-year-old nephew and his father on that child’s birthday. It went a little like this:
My brother-in-law: “What’s your favorite color?”
My nephew: “Ummmm. Bwue.”
BIL: “What’s your favorite food?”
Nephew (shouting): “ICE CREAM!!!!”
My BIL asked many additional questions of his son, making notations in a book. I learned that the fun interchange was a serious one that would be documented for posterity. I immediately latched on to the idea and decided to adopt the tradition for my own children.
This middle child recently celebrated his 22nd birthday, and I thought I’d share the journal entry I wrote a few days later.
Dear Son,
I’m writing this while in Key West with Dad. We are here for a conference. It’s a chilly, rainy day, which is unusual for the Florida Keys, but the Arctic Blast called “Enzo” is sweeping the southern U.S. and affects even its southernmost point today.
Dad and I saw you last Friday night when you came home to celebrate your birthday. You’d spent your actual birthday with college friends, scoping out a new Lego re-sale shop in Hernando, MS, and munching on hotdogs at Mochinuts in Memphis.
You brought your sweet girlfriend with you and a new game to teach us—Wingspan! It was so much fun to play the game with you and to see you so animated as you tried to teach us the complicated rules. It brought back precious memories of playing games with you when you were a child, so innocent, expressive, and full of the joy of living!
Because we stayed so busy that day—you with a follow up appointment from a recent sinus surgery and then a visit to the dentist, dinner at home, the second dinner and dessert at our local Mochinuts, and then the board game—I had to send you our annual survey via text as we made our way to Key West and you drove to Kennesaw for a tour of their grad school.
For future reference, here are your current favorites:
Color: Teal (that’s mine, too!)
Song: None
Book: None
Movie: The Wild Robot
Game: Wingspan
Food: Sweet potato anything
Dessert: Mochinuts hotdog with sweet potato crust
Thing to Do: Anything with Legos
Place to Go: Lego store
Person: (you know who)
Subject in School: Biomechanics
Something you’re good at doing: Cooking
This is your final semester at Ole Miss, and we are planning a big trip to celebrate. I hope you are as excited as I am!
Dad and I will meet you at the end of this week in Tupelo to tour a couple of apartment complexes as you’ve accepted a part-time job at a clinic there. You’ll also be taking some pre-reqs for grad school.
Son, I’m proud of you, and I pray for you daily that you will be open to the leading of the Lord!
With much love,
Mom
Every once in a while, my children will be near when I’m writing in their birthday journals and beg for me to read them some entries. Besides the annual survey, I try to leave clues about the happenings of the moment. That question about the child’s current favorite person always seems to get a rise out of the group!
I don’t know how many things of mine that my children will treasure when I’m gone (I pray that I’ll pass away before any of them do), but I’m pretty certain that each will snag their birthday journal when the time comes to divide up what’s left of the goods!
