Well, as odd as it still feels to type it, Auburn did actually go to the Final Four this year. It felt very surreal. Right but surreal.
Josh Dub said it well on Twitter.
I kept trying to put a limit on my thirteen year olds expectations. I told him that it was honor just to make it to the Final Four and we should just appreciate it.
Hank was undeterred. He wanted to win it all.
Somehow I convinced Billy that I should be the one to take Hank to Minneapolis to watch the game. We drove to Nashville to fly out and I’m glad we did because we ran into my cousin and his son who were on our flight.
My cousin looks like a well mannered adult now but when we were kids he used to scare the absolute business out of me. I was part of the younger group of cousins and nobody, and I mean nobody, could tell a ghost story like he could. Shivers down your spine.
So, Hank…I mean, here’s the deal with this kid. He is not what you would call a ‘talker.’ And, just between you, me, and the Internet, he’s really not that into me – never has been. Even as a little kid Billy would be out of town and I would say ‘hey, if you want to stay up late you can watch a movie/read a book/play a game/make cookies with me’ and he’d say ‘no thanks’ and head to bed. Alright. Whatever.
So, I decided I was going to be really deliberate with this trip and bring my A game. I googled ‘things to ask a teenager’ and came prepared with several different lists. There weren’t going to be any long pauses where we both sat in restaurants with our phones – no! This was going to be the trip where we chat it up. Feelings! Emotions! Family bonding!
So kid, get excited about answering questions like ‘if you were a ghost where would you haunt and why?’
Here is one of the lists I used.
As soon as we dropped our stuff off at the hotel we headed to the Mall of America to eat. I busted out my questions and started asking them. He was less than enthused. ‘Why are you asking me all this stuff?’ ‘Can’t we just sit here?’ The more I pressed the more quiet and noncommittal he became. “Hank! You can’t even answer what kind of dessert if your favorite?’ I got a discouraged and frustrated and finally gave up. Out came his phone and out came mine. I brooded. ‘I can’t believe this kid. Here I am making this big effort and he’s over there watching NBA recaps.’
Within a few minutes though and without looking up from his phone he asked ‘well, aren’t you going to keep asking me those questions?’ And then it was fine. I guess he just needed to do it on his own time.
Our family definitely showed up.
And so did Auburn’s basketball team. Despite playing a great game and despite me giving the UVA bus the stink eye we lost.
This is how I chose to deal with my sorrow.
Which may or may not have been better then Hank’s method of raving like a maniacal lunatic. Although, to be honest it was WAY better than it could have been and definitely better than I was expecting it to be.
I think part of that was because our Uber driver on the way home from the stadium was a refugee from the Sudan who was very talkative and told us how appreciative he’d been of his life’s journey. Kinda hard to rant about a basketball game when a man is telling you ‘after I had to flee my village a family took me in and taught me to be a shepherd and that taught me to appreciate times of quiet.’
Hey Hank, you appreciate times of quiet too. And really kid, I’m just trying to shepherd you. And I can do that whether Auburn wins or loses…but yeah, winning IS way more fun.