Excited for My Girl

This afternoon marks an important event in I.'s young life. She was invited to a friend from school's house and this is really the first official "come play at my house" invite she's had. To say that she's excited would be an understatement and I'm excited for her. She's a nice little girl, often bringing handmade cards she's made for I. to school and is not one of those fickle little girls that I want to clobber. It's sad that that trait shows up so early on in some kids. I was often a victim of those clique-ish girls throughout my school years and have attempted to pass on some of what I've learned onto I. so that she is resilient.

Resiliency...I think that's a really important characteristic to groom in a kid. I think I should add that to what I hope for I. - happy, content, and resilient. With those three things in her life, she should be able to enjoy life to the max and successfully deal with the punches that life inevitably throws us. I don't think I was taught how to be resilient because my parents like their kids to need them, to be dependent on them so I had to learn that lesson on my own in my early 30s. A lesson learned while you're a kid is much much less harrowing than a lesson learned later in life when consequences may very well be life and death, not just dealing with someone being mean to you for no reason.

A lesson learned is a lesson learned I guess. The bottom line is really did you learn it? Now I'm years down the road from that painful lesson and I'd have to say yes I did learn the lesson and that it's probably what got me through Mark's illness and death. Better late than never!