Serendiculous: The Graduate

She stood defiant, her stubborn little hands resting on her hips, standing off against the person who'd given her life. "No!" She exclaimed, planting her size 2 feet a little more firmly. I couldn't let her win - could I? I'd raised two sons and never reached such an impasse, never faced such a collision of wills.
"It's a girl," the nurse, Debbie, stated as she plopped the little wet bundle into my waiting arms just years earlier. "It's a girl," my husband echoed from beside the labor bed, a silly grin stretched across his face. But what does one do with this knowledge? She came with no guide, no manual, just the fact that she'd wear a different color. At least, that is, until SHE decided otherwise; that my perception of girl was waaaay wrong and that she'd train me to think like her; not her I.

She became the apple of everyone's eye. Her big brothers - 6 and 9 years older than she - took the charge of menacing body guards, defying anyone to put a crumple in her crinolin. Her daddy too, so enamored with the cherubic face and whispy blond curls, carried her weightlessly on his shoulders, like a princess on a litter, challenging the world to take notice - "She's my girl!"

She was his girl. Stubborn and willful as the day is long. By 4 she'd outgrown my idea of dresses and hairclips and demanded to fashion her own ecclectic ensemble. By 6 she was marching out the door, independant and strong, getting on the school bus all by herself. By 11 she won the puppy that the boys never had. And by 13, well...we all stood and held our breath. Puberty...!

Then something happened. Something only the benevolent gods would understand. She softened. She asked me for fashion advice (off of the basketball and volleyball courts). She began to dabble in femininity and mellow like a fine wine. Daddy was right all along. Her strength of character would become her greatest ally, buffering her self-worth from the hurtful hazards of youth.

Today she's reached her first big milestone, morphed perfectly into the woman that she alone was determined to create. I wish I could say it was me who laid the path for her. But only she knows where she's going and how she'll get there. And on this graduation day the stars continue to align..