In the past year, Nathan has grown comfortable in his own skin. He loves being on the stage crew at school and between that, choir and the musical, he has found a group of friends who have the same interests and with whom he gets along well. He has embraced his inner dork and is completely at ease with his own wacky sense of humor. In my opinion, it’s a good thing. Being at ease with who he is will make the rest of his teenage years (and actually, the rest of his life) just a bit easier. Self-confidence is one of those things that makes the day to day grind seem a bit less harrowing.
Nathan still loves music and playing piano is his “happy place.” He is confident enough in his skills that he is willing to step up and play the organ in sacrament meeting if needed. He enjoys a variety of different music (classical, ragtime, and jazz are just a few of his likes) and discovering his inner Broadway nerd means that I can play all the showtunes I want with no complaints from him. 😊 He is generally quite thoughtful and is (almost) always willing to help in whatever way he can. He has become a bit of an organizing guru as well as his innate OCD has become apparent. He is terribly pleased that he has grown so much that he may, in fact, be taller than Daniel before he is done. Luckily for him, Daniel is in no way threatened by that and takes in all in stride.
Overall, Nathan is a good kid. Especially for a teenager. He’s pleasant to be with and everything. He has come a long way from the toddler who didn’t talk to the teen that won’t stop. But some things remain the same: to quote the illustrious Nathan, “Once a dork, now a dork, always a dork.”
