Photo-A-Day | Documenting my children throughout the year.
Dude.
You’re a smart cookie.
Over-analytical.
Over-thinker.
Over-achiever.
Perfectionist, to a degree.
You’re a lot like a girl I know.
Today, I talked to you about Code.org,
And you were all, like,
“What’s programming?”
So, I explained to you what I do,
How everything you use on computers,
Smartphones, microwaves, cameras,
Cars, Xbox games, and electricity,
Are all created by someone who writes code.
“What’s code?”, you asked.
“It’s a set of rules that someone writes,
In order to make things work a certain way.”
And then you were hooked.
Line.
And.
Sinker.
While the other kids
were jostling their brains on the trampoline,
We sat at the computer,
Watched a short video from programmers,
Er, coders,
Talkng about programming and writing code.
Then you spent the next 90 minutes,
Working through code –
Writing your own lines of code,
Understanding code,
Feeling triumphant with each level of code completed.
I’d say you might follow in my footsteps,
But I refuse to push you to anything
Where your heart isn’t in it.
And still, your heart lies in the military.
As admirable as that is,
And I wholeheartedly support our protectors,
It stills chills me to the bone
At the thought of your sweet soul,
Defending our country by whatever means necessary.
Well, you could still be a programmer,
Writing code that saves American lives.
For now, I’ll hold onto my little boy,
This little man-child,
Who still wraps his skinny little arms
Around my waist,
Still nuzzles into my chest,
Tells me he loves me in front of his friends,
And shares my passion for
Nature,
Ghost stories,
Photography,
And the human touch.
You’re the first boy I ever loved,
Without any expectation.
No prerequisites,
No rules,
No trade-offs,
No promises that can be broken.
No truths that can be stretched.
You’re my first-born son,
my little mini-me boy,
Full of love, sensitivity, temperament,
And inquisitive nature for why and how things work.
But no need to explain
how much I love you, son;
For it was written in the stars
Long before we ever knew each other.
No programming required.
