Happy 14th Birthday, Bode!

Dear Bode,

I can’t believe you turn 14 today and will be a freshman next month! There are lot of great things happening in your life and you’re moving in a wonderful direction. Finishing middle school (hurray!). Not even one visit to the counselor’s office (double hurray!). Honor roll every term (triple hurray!).

Overall, you describe middle school as an awkward time in your life but you survived the best you could and really, talking to girls is highly overrated. You quit the piano but took up the saxophone, were part of the Student Government, made a great group of friends with whom you’d hang out and play board games every weekend…until COVID hit. The pandemic was an excuse for a consummate introvert to thrive. You’d finish your schoolwork in a few hours…and spend the rest of your time playing video games or watching insipid YouTube videos and memes. Yep, you’re definitely a teenage boy!

You have started taking more care in your appearance. You have a cool new haircut with buzzed sides and longer hair on top and cool clothes. You have been on the Solider Hollow ski team the past year and all that training has chiseled your body. You surpassed me in height this year (I’m now the shortest), you have the same size of shoes as Hadley (for now) and I’m not sure you’ll be as tall as Dad because, well you know, Borowski genes. Hadley quit pumpkin growing but you have dutifully soldiered on. You took first place last year with your 299-pound pumpkin which won’t give you bragging rights with the ladies but it sure delights your dad.

You were devastated to lose Fat Kitty a few months ago. Since moving to Utah, he has been your best bud, frequently curling up to you at bedtime. It was a great blessing shortly thereafter to pick up a dog-walking gig with Chewy (a Golden Retriever) and Zelda (an Australian shepherd). You’re so endearingly patient with them, especially Zelda and her “Fris”bee. You’ll make a great dog dad someday if your dad ever gives in and lets us get another pet. After the basement is finished. And the backyard. And the fence. So, pretty much we’ll get a dog when you’ve graduated from college.

You are becoming a great Nordic and downhill skier and had a lot of fun ski days with friends and family at Park City Mountain this year. Favorite trips included Canada last summer, the Grand Canyon (well, before it caught on fire), Brian Head where we had one of our favorite ski days ever, Lake Powell with the Olsens, Anderson and Calderwoods, and plenty of Scout trips. The Church disbanded the Scouting program last year but fortunately, your awesome Scout Leader Rob Sorensen has kept it going with weekly meetings and monthly backcountry adventures. I have no doubt these will be some of your most treasured childhood memories.

You have always been a strong, quiet leader who leads by example. When you taught a lesson on the Plan of Salvation in your Teacher’s Quorum, your instructors Brother Studdert and Frisby repeatedly texted Dad and me about what a tremendous job you were doing and how engaged the boys were. They even gave you a standing ovation at the end which is a pretty amazing thing considering your audience.

Following our recent trip to Lake Powell where you were a bit ill-at-ease as the cute Aubrey and Maddie taught you to dive, you later admitted but you’re not really one who likes the spotlight….but also don’t want to be forgotten. There are plenty of flashy people out there but the world definitely needs more substance and you’ve got it, Kid. You’re a thinker, deeply connected to the Spirit, read your scriptures nightly (you’ve read the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, started on the Old Testament and fall asleep every night to the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square). The world needs more men who are good, kind, connected and empathetic.

You are a tremendous helper, too. You have helped finish the basement and with the landscaping without complaint and, though you’re every bit as miserable doing it as the rest of us, you frequently ask, “What else?” You will be a tremendous blessing to the world, just as you have been in our lives and I can’t wait to see the many ways that you will never be forgotten.

Thank you for being such a tremendous example to us all.

Love,

Mom

P.S. For a stroll down memory lane, see birthday letters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13.