Day One Hundred Forty-Four

Caution: Mom bragging ahead. If that sort of thing annoys you, it's a good time to clicky click on the X in the corner.

OKAY, THEN!

Remember the Big Kid? You know, the one who was the inspiration for this blog in the first place a very long 14 1/2 years ago? Yeah, she still lives here. She reminds me often that she will only live here for another four years, but for that four years, SHE IS MINE.

I don't write about her directly often these days, primarily because she's old enough to be on her own path, one that is uniquely hers in every way. She is still the amazing human she has always been, but she has earned the right to privacy, you know? So she gets mentioned in passing, primarily in stories centered around her sisterj, and not a whole lot more.

Except today. Today she is the star because ... MOM BRAG MOMENT, AHOY!

Two things.

1. As we all know, the kid has been obsessed with dance since she was very tiny. She started dancing competitively last year, which was probably five years later than I should have let her because basically you have to know what your kid wants to do with their life by the time they start kindergarten or they will be behind. She did okay in her first year of competitive dance, but this year? HOOBOY. The kid jumped two levels somehow. I don't pretend to know how these things work in the background, but she's now on the second team from the top as a freshman. She's the youngest by over a year. Most of the team are high school seniors.

I have no clue how any of this works and if I should be impressed, but I am.

2. Probably the bigger deal ... Alexis has been participating in cheer through her school. Everything seemed to be going okay, but then, without warning and despite what the coaches said in the Zoom call just a week prior, they started stunting at practice. Alexis is a base, for what it's worth, which means she stands very close to 2-3 other people and holds another girl in the air.

None of her team wears masks while participating in cheer. Alexis has been on an island, the only one who wore a mask all through practice because, "What's so hard about it?" I don't know what the rationale is behind thinking anything a cheerleader does prevents them from wearing a mask (outside of tumbling, obviously, but they are distanced when they tumble unless they want kicked in the face), but that's been how it has been going. I was mostly okay with it because they were distanced from one another throughout practice.

Stunting was a step too far for Alexis, though. Breathing the same air someone exhaled felt to her like a risk not worth taking, so she quit. Just like that. She decided that if other people couldn't act responsibly, she didn't want to be a part of it.

It was a pretty mature decision and I'm proud of her for standing up for what she believes. And for what the data says she should do. Basically, I'm saying my 14-year old is smarter than a hell of a lot of adults.

I told you there were mom brags ahead.

Comments

[Kathy]

Both things you should brag about. Congrats to Alexis on the jump in competitive dance. I know she works hard and she earned it. And a very mature decision to quit cheer. I am not at all surprised that she is looking our for herself. You have raised an amazing young lady.