November 22: "To My Favorite 17-Year-Old High School Girl," Pretty Darn Cool, Son and Daughter

My kids are pretty darn cool.  I have a 23-year-old daughter (she will be 24 in less than a month) who is heading downstate to medical school at the end of next August.  And I have a 16-year-old son who's a junior in high school and starts taking college classes in January.  If you can't tell, I'm kind of proud of them.

Billy Collins praises the accomplishments of young people, too . . . 

To My Favorite 17-Year-Old High School Girl

by: Billy Collins

Do you realize that if you had started
building the Parthenon on the day you were born,
you would be all done in only one more year?
Of course, you couldn’t have done it alone,
so never mind, you’re fine just as you are.
You’re loved for just being yourself.

But did you know that at your age Judy Garland
was pulling down $150,000 a picture,
Joan of Arc was leading the French army to victory,
and Blaise Pascal had cleaned up his room?
No wait, I mean he had invented the calculator.

Of course, there will be time for all that later in your life,
after you come out of your room
and begin to blossom, or at least pick up all your socks.

For some reason, I keep remembering that Lady Jane Grey
was Queen of England when she was only fifteen,
but then she was beheaded, so never mind her as a role model.

A few centuries later, when he was your age,
Franz Schubert was doing the dishes for his family
but that did not keep him from composing two symphonies,
four operas, and two complete Masses as a youngster.

But of course that was in Austria at the height
of romantic lyricism, not here in the suburbs of Cleveland.

Frankly, who cares if Annie Oakley was a crack shot at 15
or if Maria Callas debuted as Tosca at 17?

We think you are special just being you,
playing with your food and staring into space.
By the way, I lied about Schubert doing the dishes,
but that doesn’t mean he never helped out around the house.

My daughter and son are wonders to me.  I think most parents will say that they want their kids to have better lives than they had.  Want them to be smarter and happier and more successful.  Certainly, that's what my mom and dad wanted for me.  

I'm a first generation college student.  My mom encouraged me to study computer science because, even back in the 1980s, she knew that was going to be the future.  I did get a BA in English and computer science and math eventually, but I followed my passion and got advanced degrees in creative writing.  And my parents lived long enough to see me publish my first collection of poems, become the U.P. Poet Laureate, and teach at a university.  I think I did them proud.

And now the shoe's on the other foot.  I'm seeing my kids pursue their passions and dreams.  Yes, I'd love to have a daughter who's a doctor.  Sure, I'd love to have a son who works in cyber security.  I wouldn't mind if they composed symphonies or became movie stars or sang opera at the Met, either.  My biggest hope for them is happiness--whatever form that happiness takes.

I don't care who they love, as long as the person treats them with kindness and respect.  And I don't care what jobs they land, as long as those occupations feed their souls (and aren't illegal or in the porn industry).  Would I like them to be artists or writers?  Sure, because that will set them up for a lifetime of financial security (I type with tongue firmly planted in my cheek). 

My Christmas tree is glowing in the corner of the room right now.  Its branches are filled with ornaments and decorations my kids made while in elementary and middle school.  Construction paper hands.  Clothespin reindeer.  Cotton ball snow people.  I miss those days.

But my kiddos are growing into pretty cool young adults.  Not a Republican in the batch.

Maybe Saint Marty had a little to do with their amazingness.