Musings at Altitude

In this month of January, I’ve been able to take my 14 year old to the bus stop every day, and I’ve also been able to pick her up from the bus stop a couple of days.  If plans play out, I’ll be able to do the morning bus stop run every day this month – something that has never happened in the entire history of our family with any of the kids.

With this being so rare, I’m using this time to my advantage.  I’m finding out things that I really need to know in order to be fulfilled in life.  Like today, the entire 5 minute conversation that occurred between the time we got in the car till the time the bus appeared centered around the question of how many goalies are required to be on the bench in an NHL hockey game.  Now to some, that would seem like a pretty bizarre subject, but to those who know my daughter, it was a heated debate with her quoting me from the NHL rule book and me challenging her about the depth of her knowledge just to spin her up! 

As she got out of the car this morning, I said “I love you”.  She quickly retorted, “you called me a liar.”  I responded, “I love you”.  And she popped back, “I love you too”, as she slammed the door with a smile and headed to the bus.

In the last two weeks of bus stop runs, I’ve learned the following:

• she reads the NHL hockey rule book when she’s bored
• she loves science and hates math (I now know more about the forming of the earth as taught in today’s science than I ever wanted to know; of course, I always pop back, “and we were taught Pluto was a 9th planet when we went to school” just to make my point that she has a right to question things that are taught to her)
• she loves writing but only about things she like to write about (her grades reflect that – A’s in things she likes to write about and C’s in things that are boring to her)
• she loves spending time with the 1st graders (her “favorite class ever” last semester)

I’m pretty excited to have such high quality father-daughter time, even if for only about 5 minutes a day in route to the bus stop.  I’m also pretty excited to know that, like her mother, my 14 year old can remember the most unimportant facts about anything and then pop them off in defense during any meaningless debate we may have. 

I bet that trait serves her well as she follows her passions now and starts planning her life!