Editor’s Note: This did take place on 11/28/12 but I still wanted to plug Nick’s birthday on my site because 14 is a special birthday in my mind.
My Chicago-based nephew hit the big 1-4 today! Sure at 13 he’s a “teenager” based upon the suffix. However, I don’t think kids are officially teenagers until 14 or later. Their 13th year is a transitional period between tweener and teen. Few are in high school by then anyway.
I don’t want to turn this into something all about me but turning 14 was a memorable, special birthday. Despite the move to Houston, a major shift in all our lives, it was a great time. High school would begin in the Fall, we celebrated at Chuck E Cheese (in 1982, the place catered to arcade fans, not small children who hate pizza) and I got some D&D stuff, my passion at the time. Oh yeah, a side trip to Apple Tree Records where I received or bought Paul McCartney’s Tug of War and Rick Springfield’s Success Hasn’t Spoiled Me Yet albums, boosting my album collection to a whooping three!
I hope it’s an awesome point in Nick’s life. We’re 30 years apart so there’s the number thing, I probably live through him vicariously, no, not really. Again, my birthday wish for him is the following year to be a great transition from kid to young adult with numerous, fantastic discoveries. What those may be? I have no idea. They don’t have to be mine (games, music, cartoons, trivia, Sci-Fi and comedy…the whole Nerdcore culture I guess, we just weren’t cool until a few became ultra-rich), just something he has a passion for. Then I can help feed it with birthday, graduation and Christmas gifts.