Thursday, May 7, 2015

Exciting News for the Teenager!



Thirteen years ago, in the middle of a late blooming of Cherry Blossoms (Sakura) in Yokosuka Japan, we brought home a 7 pound 8 ounce baby girl.  She arrived in a flurry of pink and immediately wrapped both her parents around her tiny, perfect finger.  Dad especially fell victim to this little pint sized doll baby and though we had kind of hoped for a boy, we were okay with this little girl we had.  As she grew, she was all pink tights and leotards, a ballerina to the core with all the grace and skill that would carry her quite a ways to keep up with the big girls when given an opportunity.  She danced with the kind of passion and joy that she gives her life, there was no wondering if Madison loved what she was doing, she glowed with it.  Did I lament that I had a girlie girl and not a tomboy more like me?  No.  Well maybe a little, but only because I wasn’t sure what to do with all that pink, all this girl… but after Sydney came along two years and four months after Madison – it was obvious that I better start learning.  Don’t get me wrong, I had tea parties when I was little, and I had Barbie, but I also had two older brothers and no one else to play with.  So I was pretty good at football and once my brother received a “Guns of Navarone” playset…Barbie became “Barb” in Camo and took that hill over and over again complete with knives and guns she swiped from GI Joe while he was sleeping.  But those are stories for another day…

So we had these two dancing little girls…but we still had this tomboy mom, and as luck would have it…Madison’s ability to dance just meant she also has a natural ability for movement, and she soon was tearing up the field playing football, and then the courts with Basketball and then Volleyball, finally.  Hurray, something I knew how to teach her.  Somewhere in there a really talented artist emerged, and writer, but surprising to me was the mathematician and scientist that are in there too.  How can she be so unlike me?  She has my eyes, my love for Volleyball and she has double my brain.  She loves Math and Science more than she does writing and reading, but she loves both of those in pretty good measure too.  She’s a pretty all around intelligent kid and we truly believe that common sense will surely follow in the path, eventually. 

Back at the beginning of the year sometime, Madison’s Math teacher saw something special in her and nominated her for a special summer camp at UCSD.  The nomination was the easy part, after that Madison had to complete an application and write an essay in order to be considered.  From there, she pushed forward to an Interview process.  It was odd sitting there and watching her talk her way through questions and try to express who she is and what she is about to two complete strangers.  I felt like she was six years old again and being interviewed by Japanese Producers who were considering her for television commercials or magazine ads.  I would sit quietly, letting her fumble with grace through the rigors of selling herself to them.  I did the same in these interviews.  When she got too far away from talking about herself, they brought her back to talking about her and not the greatness of another friend.  After the interview we had to broach the potential of a move, would she be considered?  Turns out they were willing to consider her if we were willing to bring her to San Diego if she were to be chosen.  I told them of course, but expected that she wouldn’t be considered because of the move.  Turns out they saw something pretty special in my daughter.

The day before Easter, she received a letter of Congratulations that she had been chosen.  She cried.  And her utter joy touched my heart; I had no idea to what depth she had wanted this so badly.  Something that I felt she thought would be fun was something she had been truly hoping for, recognizing this in that moment as I held her; I had a few misty tears myself.  But then we knew I was a big mushy baby anyway.  So come summer, my kiddo is spending a week in the dorm at UCSD, learning and absorbing a world of math and science as taught by other incredibly gifted, intelligent and successful women in the world of STEM.  An opportunity to take part in a camp designed for seventh grade girls that encourage them to pursue futures in STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.  And my daughter is so excited she wants to start packing right now.  It’s a world I know very little about, but one that both my daughters might spend their lives in…and I couldn’t be prouder.  So yet again, I have some learning to do so I can make sure that come Holiday dinners I can understand and maybe say at least one intelligent thing back.  Or… I’ll throw pumpkin pie on the menu, then no one talks all that much anyway.  ;-) 

So we spent Saturday in traffic traveling hours back and forth from San Diego, and though the traffic sucked and we were exhausted at the end of the day and honestly, into Sunday, it was so worth the trip.   She managed to contain her seat, barely, and when they took the group picture, my little pale haired sunshine glowed from the middle of the group.  And as Eric leaned over and whispered in my ear: “You realize she’s going to come home from this camp completely different.” I had to pause as I thought about it.  He’s mostly right, she will.   She will be older and more mature, but if she truly loves any of these potential topics, her world will rotate to a passionate pursuit that will be deterred by no one the moment she decides to put the full force of her will towards it.  And that alone will be something to behold.  

Congratulations Kiddo!  Your mom and dad are so proud of you!  And we promise, we will extract your envious little sister from your suitcase as soon as we drop you off at your dorm room! 

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