Field Notes: How puberty today is different, free Covid tests, savoring the now
Plus, a question for you about future Winter Art Camps
Hello, dear friends! I hope you are doing well. We’re in the middle of Winter Art Camp, which has been so fun — writers, poets, painters, photographers, musicians, all gathered to create, support each other, and brighten this dismal month. It’s been such a joy that I’m thinking of hosting such a community again later in 2024. What month would you like a creative boost? April, maybe? Or September, when it feels like a new year is beginning?
Onto today’s Field Notes, in our new format:
First, something surprising, delightful, or thought-provoking.
Second, something actionable you can do today.
Third, something worth remembering — worth reminding ourselves again.
1} Something surprising:
This post, Modern Puberty, Explained, by Melinda Wenner Moyer surprised me again and again. (She’s a terrific journalist who writes about parenting in so many angles.) In this Q&A, Melinda interviews the authors of This Is So Awkward, Dr. Cara Natterson and Vanessa Kroll Bennett.
“Puberty starts earlier, it lasts longer and it happens with a cell phone. Those three elements are what really mark the biggest differences, generationally, between puberty then (ours) and puberty now (theirs).” — Dr. Cara Natterson
The cell phone difference really struck me. Why does that matter so much? Well …
“The cell phone aspect has very real physical, social and emotional implications. There's a lot of data about [phones causing] loss of sleep, causing stress. We know that the stress response means cortisol levels go up in the body. What we also know is that high and sustained levels of cortisol tip the body into puberty earlier — this is not the only cause, it is one of the causes. So the cell phone of it all shifts the physical onset. It also deeply impacts the emotional and social experience.” — Dr. Cara Natterson
The whole Q&A is filled with surprises. The authors note how girls’ physical changes are visible, and boys’ are not, so it looks like girls might be entering puberty now way before boys, but that’s not necessarily so.
And there are more interesting parts … Read the full Q&A here.
2} Something to do today:
Order your 4 free home Covid tests from the U.S. government. Go here and fill out the form, and they’ll be mailed to you at no cost. If you didn’t place an order this fall, you can order another 4 tests. Better to have them then search for them when you feel terrible! Request your free Covid home kits.
Wondering how Covid cases are doing? Dr. Katelyn Jetelina wrote a State of Affairs.
3} Something worth remembering: Your life right now isn’t your life forever.
Things will change. It can sometimes feel like you are stuck, or the current state of your life or your health is permanent. But the only thing we do know is that life is not fixed in place. It shifts, it surprises us. Change will happen.
Sometimes, when the days have fallen into a routine, and something is starting to wear on me, I try to step back and imagine myself years from now.
Then I “look back” at this time. I try to see it anew, from the perspective of someone 10 years old.
I try to notice what was special in some way that is hard to see day to day.
I can move pretty easily right now. Maybe one day I’ll find that harder. How much I will wish I had savored being able to take a brisk walk! I can hear pretty well right now. Maybe one day I’ll be straining to hear and miss the easy conversation in a loud place. I live within the beautiful mountains of the Hudson Valley. I do sometimes long for the city and for being closer to friends and family, but maybe one day I’ll miss these vistas and quietness.
There are doubtless things about our life and our health right now that we are each taking for granted. Zoom out and see them today. Savor them now.
I hope you have a sweet day ahead.
To our journeys,
Brianne
