Punxsutawney Hudson

This past week Hudson’s teacher sent out a picture in the class messaging app. It was a picture of a groundhog activity that the class did together. They colored a groundhog and had to put it under whether they thought he’d see his shadow or not.

It took me all of half a second to find Hudson’s groundhog. Amongst a sea of brown groundhogs was a multicolored one with his name on it. When I saw it, two thoughts immediately came to mind:

Thought #1: He WOULD pick 6 more weeks of winter. The kid loves snow and would stay outside playing (when I say playing, I really mean eating) in it all day if I let him.

Thought #2: Oh man, did he not follow the directions and refuse to color his groundhog brown??

Later on, I asked him about the project and if his teacher was okay with him coloring it all different colors, to which he responded with an enthusiastic “yeah!”.

For some reason I kept going back to the picture of those groundhogs.

The more I looked at, the more I thought this little groundhog embodied my sweet six-year-old.

Hudson is a colorful child (so to speak). He can be loud, and he most definitely stands out in the crowd. Sometimes he’s the boy in class who is having a hard time crying and screaming. Other times he’s the kid who is yelling out random dinosaur or monster truck facts. Either way, he’s hard to miss, much like his groundhog.

Hudson’s groundhog was also one of two that had chosen 6 more weeks of winter. Just he and one other student made that choice. Hudson does not follow the crowd and he doesn’t always fit in. He’s always been his own person. And while sometimes I worry that he’ll be lonely and struggle making friends, I also know he’s not afraid to say what he thinks or to do his own thing. There is something beautiful in being different and not fitting the mold. He thinks for himself and refuses to let anyone change his mind. I actually envy him for being able to do that at such a young age.

I’d gladly take 6 more weeks… more years… more lifetimes… of our colorful, loud, and beautiful Hudson.