There were quite a few reasons Grace was determined to go to W___ High School. She was excited about the opportunity to play on the lacrosse team. She was really excited about enrolling in the biomedical pathway of the Science, Math and Technology Academy there. She was also looking forward to shifting foreign languages from Spanish to American Sign Language (ASL), which we had heard was offered as a language option at W___.
This past Sunday, Grace turned fourteen years old. That day, she had a lacrosse game (her team won, yay!). That night, we got to dig in to her birthday dinner: she requested steak, pierogis, potato latkes, avocadoes, and, for dessert, eclairs. This list of items makes me smile, as it wraps up both sides of her family heritage, as well as her now-favorite pastry, the preference for which was locked in on our recent trip to France during spring break.
At the end of her fifth grade year, Kali learned from her language arts teacher about a city-wide essay writing competition for DC students. Kali decided to enter. The subject of the competition that year was to write about “something unfair that has happened to you.” Kali’s essay was called “Being Heard.” Here’s how it starts...
Somehow, I find myself writing these seven words: Grace is a senior in high school.
I look at the cover photo for this blog page, and it makes me smile to think that I saw her running with the same joyful abandon as in that picture several times this weekend - on Saturday at her field hockey tournament and on Sunday at her lacrosse game. But the thing is - this weekend she also attended the 18th birthday party for one of her close friends, and drove herself there.
Nothing changes… everything changes…