A Teenager

It’s strange how quickly time passes. There are a few pauses along the way when one sees their child locked in time. Otherwise, time pushes forward and changes everyone.

Madison celebrated her 13th birthday today, which Tiffany directly refused to acknowledge, because how could we have a teenager? It’s a valid question!

Madison loves riding on the train, so we took the train up to Dani’s basketball game in Draper. We played UNO! in the upstairs traincar using Madison’s mini UNO! cards. Should we mention who won? Well, I did. All three games, actually, but Madison never stopped smiling. She’s just happy to play, happy to be on the train, happy to spend time with Dad.

We got to the train station and it was incredibly cold! Luckily Grandma was just around the corner, and then we jumped into her car and sped off to the school. Dani won the game, and then didn’t want a ride back, so we left with Grandma and went to the nearby Arctic Circle to get a birthday burger and shake.

At dinner Madison told me that for one of her school projects she had to choose who her hero was and she chose me. What a mean thing to do—make your dad cry at a fast food restaurant on your birthday! Her reasoning was that she appreciates the way that I mentally approach problems and think things through, and that I “know everything” or at least seem to. She said she wants to be like that when she grows up.

Nobody tell her that she’s already grown up, ok? 5’7″ at 13, and I couldn’t love her more.

She won all the UNO! games on the train ride home, so I guess we can call it even.

Categories: Stories

This post was written by AdyEndrus, posted on January 9, 2026 Friday at 11:35 pm