Teenage Drive Time

I carpool with four other families who live in our area on basketball practice nights. It is wonderful, instead of driving three nights a week we only have to drive once every other week. Heaven! Tonight was my turn, and maybe because it's so infrequent now, I really look forward to it.

I always arrive at the school early and peek in at the end of practice. Today Miranda yells from across the gym, "Hey Mom!" Acknowledgement! Every mother of a teenager knows what a treat this is! The girls were all revved up and stopped to say "Hey" (apparently NO ONE says Hi anymore) on their way to the locker room. They grabbed all their bags (an unbelievable ammount) and headed out to the car laughing and talking all the way.

There's a demand of "Ooh turn this up!" No matter what song is on the radio, it's someone's favorite. Then the girls started talking, the coach is a dork, the algebra teacher is a dork, the science teacher is a mean dork, etc. There seems to be a pattern. I finally got an opening and added that I had their algebra teacher when I was in school, which caused another fit of laughter. (I'm not sure why, but I'm not going to focus on that!)

There's such a feeling of happiness when they all get together, giggling and enjoying each other, each one trying to be funnier than the last, acting like teenagers are supposed to. I'm very grateful that they let me be a part of it once in a while!

Miss Miranda Boettcher

Miranda is involved in three sports, and I have said before that we are constantly running around, back and forth, to and from everyday. I have realized that Miranda has learned and is learning valuable life lessons from this.

Organization: I've never seen a kid like her. She has a separate bag for each sport, filled with equipment, headbands, lotion, contact solution, etc. She will never be unprepared for any game, practice, or tournament. This is also carried over into her academics, her planner is impeccable, she does not forget assignments, or books at school. She obviously does not get this from me.

Hard work: Whether it's on a court or field or classroom, Miranda works so hard to do her very best. She enjoys doing well! She wants to do well! It matters to her! Talking with other parents, this is very rare.

Time management: If Miranda has late practice (5:30-7:30) she will bring books home the weekend before to read ahead, do vocab that wasn't assigned, study for tests scheduled in the following week. So that when she does get home, she can shower and go to bed.

Team Work: She has learned that in life, people depend on you, and you depend on others to reach a common goal. She has felt the wonderful feeling of what happens when you win as a team, and the disappointment of coming up short as a team.

Decision Making: I think this is the hardest lesson of all. Sometimes there isn't a right or wrong choice. Sometimes you have an easy route and a hard route. Sometimes Mom and Dad don't always agree. The lesson she is learning, is that she just has to come to a decision and live with it without regret. If she can do that, she is far more self assured than I ever was at 14!

Life is not fair: This lesson has popped up recently, sometimes you can work hard and be very deserving and not receive what is fair. We all know what a horrible feeling this is. She and I have had lots of tears and long talks about this. She is realizing that she can be proud of herself and her hard work even though the outcome wasn't exactly what she thought it should be.

I am so proud of this kid who is turning into a young woman right before my eyes.