My niece, Artypants, is graduating from high school next month.
I changed this kid's diapers even though she wore cloth that had to be wrapped in layers of plastic and schlepped home. I helped potty train her though she insisted on sitting for no less than twenty minutes at each attempt, conducting private conversations with the imaginary "pretend spiders" that accompanied her everywhere. I rocked her to sleep even though she developed colic at three months that didn't go away until ... well, if it ever goes away I'll let you know. I kept a crib and toys and baby shampoo at my house. And now she's graduating from high school.
Guess I can get rid of the baby shampoo, especially since she's a Curly Girl and uses only conditioner.
She applied to nine schools. Her artistic temperament dictates that she operate on her own time, in her own dimension, according to her own guidelines. She's well on her way to repealing gravity.
Consequently she applied the same rules and deadlines to composing application essays as many Americans do to filing their taxes; unfortunately the post office main branch didn't stay open until midnight the night before the applications were due so my sister could drive downtown in her nightshirt and hand the packages to a postal worker waiting on the corner.
Through an entire weekend neither of them left the house, or showered, or changed into real clothes, Curley sitting by Artypants the whole time providing virtually the same caliber of moral support she devotes to Duke basketball. After the essays were finished they devoted proportional cheerleading time to the production of the required art projects, which, like the essays, had to be different for each school concerned. Artypants finally got everything finished and weighed and stamped and mailed and then it was time to ...
shower first and then ...
wait for it ...
Yes, that's it -- wait for it.
We waited, biting our fingernails and plucking our eyelashes one by one calmly expecting enthusiastic acceptances from every single school.
A couple weeks ago the letters began arriving, and I'll be darned if that kid didn't get offers from six schools, including two scholarships for no good reason other than the schools seemed to like her work. And why shouldn't they? She's a brilliant writer and artist, with outstanding credentials, who will be an asset to any college so long as she remembers to turn off the water after showering and to shut off the oven after baking cookies.
Think Artypants is cool? Read more here.
Didn't it seem a lot easier when all we thought about was potty training?
Visit FeeFiFoto and design a personalized microfiber handbag with your favorite black and white or color photograph, as a graduation gift for your favorite niece.
Comments