I am constantly amazed at Hope. She’s the child I most often butt heads with, making it hard for me to show and tell her how stinkin proud I am of her. She’s truly amazing.
Today, she was selected to be in the Geography Bowl. Sounds like it’s similar to a spelling bee, but they have to answer geography questions. There will be 2 people chosen from her school to go to state—she has a 1 in 8 chance of being one of them.
This is where parenting gets hard. On the surface, it all looks good. I should be proud and excited for her. And I am. But, I also know the kids she’s up against—and they are brilliant, too. In fact, many of them are in the LEAP program (which Hope is not). One of them is the smartest kid I know and I’m pretty sure he will win (he looks at Google Earth for fun). When we go camping with his family, I have no fear letting Hope go explore with him because I know he will find his way back (and probably find the quickest route, too).
So the hard part is being excited for Hope and encouraging her, but not letting her define herself on whether she wins this or not. Don’t get me wrong—I would LOVE to see her win it—and I think she really could if she wanted it bad enough. But I don’t want her to feel like we are less proud of her if she doesn’t. Or that she isn’t as good as those who beat her.
I think I posted something like this a couple years ago when her artwork was selected to be shown throughout our district. Guess it doesn’t get any easier as they get older…
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