Goodbye, Single Digits

My youngest will be 10 tomorrow. To honor the occasion, a few final 9-year-old stories.

This morning upon waking he immediately said, "Well?" "Well, what?" said I. "You know what." I didn't, but a few seconds later I did. Moms are like that. "Happy Birthday Eve, Evan!" (What? You mean you don't celebrate the eves of birthdays? What planet are you on?)

Later in the morning he declared, "My passion for video games grows ever larger." Yeah, I've noticed. He then went on to tell me that some day he would like to have a job with Sony or Nintendo but not with Microsoft because they publish too many adult-rated games. "I only want to design E-rated [everyone] or T-rated [teen] games." That's my boy.

And on the topic of video games, it was a rather difficult night for the almost-ten-year-old. A downloadable program that he has been enjoying has ceased working properly. It is a program that allows the user to design his own Zelda game adventure. Evan has not been able to use the program for a while because of the malfunction, so his dad suggested just getting a fresh download. Unfortunately, the site where we previously got this program is now identified by our virus software as unsafe. Caitlin said she would see if she could find the program on a different website, and I went upstairs. A little while later, a very sad 9-year-old showed up in my bedroom, eyes red from crying.

"I did a very brave thing, Mom."

"What, Evan? What happened?"

"I deleted Zelda Classic and all my files."

"Oh, Evan, why?"

He explained to me that the program was no longer available, which meant that he would no longer be able to use the files he had created (a lot of files), so he didn't see a reason to keep them. I told him how sorry I was but also how proud I was and how what he experienced tonight is something we all experience throughout our lives: realizing when it is time to let go of one thing and move on to the next. I promised him that soon, very soon, something else would come along that would inspire him more than Zelda Classic ever did.

After he got ready for bed he informed me that he wanted to skip reading tonight except for the Bible. He wanted me to get to bed early so I could be rested for his birthday. "I'm going to miss my 9-year-old self."

I am too, Evan.