the box, in its early stages
I made a mistake last night.
AppleApple's completed project on "the history of women in the Olympics" sat on our dining-room table, ready to be hauled in to school today. I saw an empty spot on the box (she designed the visual project using a large cardboard box with doors that open to reveal photos of athletes, with blurbs about their accomplishments). I thought to myself, wouldn't it be the perfect tribute to fill that empty spot with a photo of the project's author, on the soccer field, with a little blurb in the style of the blurbs she'd written about the other athletes? So I took it upon myself to do this, even though it was really late at night, and I was really tired, and in no way had the child herself asked me to.
This was my blurb: "AppleApple's name, b. 2002. Swimmer, soccer player, runner. Aspiring Olympic athlete. Dreaming of representing Team Canada at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Games."
She walked in from swimming this morning, 7:30AM, saw her box in the dim light of day, and freaked out. "What did you do to my project?" she wailed. To say that she didn't like my addition would be a serious understatement. She was in tears. She couldn't explain why. (Was it because I was putting undue pressure on her to become an Olympic athlete -- not my intention? No! It wasn't that! she told me in a very irritated tone.) Carefully, I peeled off the photo and blurb, apologizing sincerely, and sincerely wondering at myself for trying so hard and getting it so wrong.
"Realism and kindness are your hallmarks," my mom texted me this morning, on a separate subject altogether. I appreciate her encouragement.
It seems not to apply in this instance at all. That probably makes me doubly appreciative.
I would like to think that some of the time it's true to my character.
This morning, I was re-reading blog posts from this time last year. Much sounds the same: swim meets, soccer, busy, busy, busy. But there's one main difference. I was writing. I was writing a draft of Girl Runner, in fact. Happiness shone out of my words. This is what those blog posts told me: I am happiest when I'm writing.
This fall has been hard because I've been missing my writing. It's as simple as that. I'll get back to it soon. It's as simple as that, too.Labels: homework, parenting, projects, writing
