UBC October 2026 - Colin turned 18

How my son went from being a baby to being an adult is beyond me. I blinked, and somehow he turned 18!

On his actual birthday, he had to go to school and had hockey practice in the evening, so our festivities were limited to ordering sushi before he had to leave.

The gift he appreciated most was actually the envelope our municipal administration sent him: the documents to vote for the first time!

Since he has been interested in politics and what's happening around us since elementary school, he was absolutely thrilled that he is now officially invited to participate.

And, as it happens, his first opportunity came almost immediately. There are two federal proposals on the ballot this weekend:

Neutrality Initiative: Switzerland is voting on whether to put a much stricter definition of neutrality into the Constitution. Among other things, it would restrict military cooperation and prohibit Switzerland from imposing sanctions on countries involved in wars, with some exceptions.

Food Security Initiative: This would require Switzerland to produce substantially more of the food it consumes, aiming for at least 70% domestic production, while encouraging more plant-based agriculture and stronger protections for drinking water, soil and biodiversity.

So yes, my newly minted 18-year-old has already received his first voting documents. Welcome to adulthood, kid! 

As a practical gift, my husband brought home a bicycle pump and put it to use right away.

Because apparently adulthood comes with bicycles that need their tires inflated.

For a proper birthday dinner we went to Runway 34, which I wrote about a while ago. It's a repurposed hangar that has been turned into an aviation-themed restaurant.

Every table is named after a destination, using its airport code, so we were seated at MAD, Madrid.

And the waiters, or should we call them flight attendants, serve the food from a trolley.

Speaking of destinations...

Colin's main birthday gift is our financial contribution to his class trip to Prague.

Yes, we had only just been there as a family. And as soon as he returned in April, his class got to decide where they wanted to go for their project study week.

They chose Prague.

Fortunately, he had already spent a few days exploring the city with us, because his class managed to pack quite a lot into their trip, and they weren't exactly spending their days wandering around the Old Town.

• They met with the Swiss ambassador in Prague, who told them about his work.
• They took a day trip to Mladá Boleslav to visit the Škoda factory.
• They had a guided tour of Theresienstadt, which I had mistakenly thought of simply as a concentration camp. In fact, it was a Nazi ghetto and transit camp where Jews were imprisoned during the Holocaust, before many were deported to concentration camps and killing sites elsewhere.
• And one evening, some of his buddies went to a hockey game featuring Prague's local team, Sparta Prague.

So apparently my son has now reached adulthood, voted for the first time, learned how to inflate his own bicycle tires, eaten sushi on his 18th birthday, and gone back to Prague with his classmates.

I'm still not entirely sure how we got here.

But I suppose that's what happens when you blink.