New Serna Baby

Growing a Personality

And I’m not kidding. I can see it from all the way over here! It’s huge!

I’m not entirely sure from whence they grow, or what they look like exactly, but you seem to be growing one. Or maybe personalities are like baby teeth; you’ve always had one, but only now it’s starting to surface. But you ultimately lose your baby teeth when your adult teeth finally push through. Are you going to lose this personality as you grow? Or does your personality grow with you, like your hands and feet?

I can’t remember being your age. Nor can I remember ever not being me. So I don’t know if I had a personality transplant some time (or several times) during my wee years. I have seen some of my personality traits come and go during the years that I can remember. Shy at times, outgoing during others. I have had periods of being driven, and times of fully embracing a laissez-faire perspective on life. But perhaps it truly is that, “The preceding verses are the halves of my soul, I’m just the battlefield and that is my role.”

You have so many expressions; so many looks. While your many smiles may seem similar, the glint in your eye - that sparkle of your soul changes with each one. You can be so chatty at times, constantly stoking this burning desire within me to understand what you are trying so hard to explain. I so want your energy and excitement to keep growing with your personality, and I don’t want it to fall out like baby teeth. I want it to be part of your life that you can remember, and therefore always be a part of you.

I guess selfishly I’m also hoping that this part of you, these glimpses I see of the emerging you will still be there when I come home. That while some of your traits may fade with time, I will nonetheless still see in you all that you ever were, and maybe not have missed a very special part of you that phone calls and photos failed to capture.