Today was the last day of school for a high school senior who calls me father. Ok, that is not the term she uses for me but it is accurate because I am her father.
I started blogging while she was what some would call In Utero and given it won’t be long before her 18th birthday rolls around it occurs to me I really have been doing this for a while.
In many ways this blog in all its aspects (blogger and self-hosted) is the history of a girl’s life. It is not what you would call chapter and verse but it is not supposed to be.
Many of the best and or most interesting stories have been left out because she deserves to build her own digital footprint and because I don’t have ownership of it all anymore.
There are multiple boundaries that I try to be cognizant of because in the world she is growing up in it is not uncommon for people to search for information about others. Some of her friends have found bits and pieces of things and we have had discussions about that.
It is strange sometimes to realize how much of a life she has that I am barely aware of. Makes sense because it was the same when I was her age, but still surreal in a way.
Conversations
The time of her living at home on a full time basis is coming to an end and so I find myself trying to engage in more conversations about multiple topics.
We talked often before this time arrived, but something about it has pushed me to try to cram more in.
Pushed me to reiterate lessons I hope she has learned and information that may not have sunk in because she was younger when she first got it.
I recognize in many ways she is who she is and that if her character isn’t of a certain nature already it is too late.
The good news is I am pleased and proud with and of who she is but it doesn’t mean there is no interest in a gentle push here and there
I shared the Ben Franklin quote above with her and she asked what point I was trying to make.
“Lots of people will try to motivate you to do different things with quotes from famous people. Lots of them won’t ever have given any thought to what the quote means or what context it was originally given in.
Never stop thinking and don’t let people tell you that rights that have been held by all Americans for decades ought to be adjusted just because a minority dislikes them. What we give away cannot aways be taken back with any sort of ease on both large and small scale.”
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She sat with it for a while and then I told her she could take it solely on a political level or she could see an application on a personal level too.
There might be better quotes and or better ways to drive home the points I want her to take but there isn’t time to get too deep into searching for them and that is ok.
It is surreal to think she is almost on her way out of here, the baby isn’t a baby anymore.
Yesterday she was in preschool and I was so much younger myself. Today we are both far older and tomorrow, well we’ll leave tomorrow where it is as it will come soon enough.
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