Jill's Journal: Carter, the teenager
By:
Jill Meier, Journal editor
I’m not sure when it happened, but it did. Carter, the eldest of my six great-nephews and -nieces, is headed for high school this fall. It’s hard for me to think of him as a freshman in high school. Wasn’t it just yesterday that he was learning to walk and talk?
Carter and his dad, Tim, camped out at my place for a couple of baseball tournament weekends this summer, one in mid-June, the other in mid-July. With three kids playing ball – usually in different directions – Tim, hoping to give the family budget a break asked if the “Meier hotel” in Brandon had a vacancy.
Because I don’t get to spend as much time as I’d like with my nephews and their families, I was quick to extend a welcome invitation – “Mi casa es su casa.” “My house is your house.”
On both weekends, the three of us stayed up late Friday night. Tim and I caught up, had a few laughs and as always, “solved” life’s many problems.
Carter stayed up late with us, too. He, however, wasn’t as talkative as the little boy who once chatted non-stop most often about nothing overly important.
Today, Carter is a polite 14-year-old. “Please” and “thank you” are staples in his vocabulary. He can be talkative when he wants to be. (Just ask him about the car he’s saving his money to buy.) And he can be quiet as a church mouse. (Just ask him about girls.)
After his team won their first game of the June tournament, he was in a talkative mode. But when the New Ulm River Rats lost their second game the next day, he had little interest in any sort of conversation. Let’s just say he was more into “talking” on his phone than to his dad and great-aunt.
Like most teens, Carter’s often engrossed in his phone, more specifically, Instagram. And after he was plugged into Instagram for hours upon hours, as I was headed to bed, Carter remained tuned in his phone and Instagram. I had to giggle the next morning after Tim nudged Carter, informing him that it was time to get up and get ready to play ball. Before the typical teen even wiped the sleep from his eyes, his first act was to reach for his phone, and you guessed it, he clicked on the Instagram app to see what he’d missed out on while he was “checking his eyelids for holes,” as my dad always said.
I imagine Carter is no different than a lot of teenagers today. He’ll give you “yes” and “no” answers, shrugs his shoulders when he doesn’t have an answer, and of course, is computer and cell phone savvy. And just like most of your typical teens, if Carter’s not in a talking mode, the conversation is sure to be one-sided, that is, unless he’s in Instagram mode.
