“Being nineteen months younger than her older sister is mostly good, but there are times when I wonder if my parents cheered as loudly when I took my first steps or said my first sentence. Did Mom cry when I started kindergarten? She said she did Kari’s first day of school. And dresses – I get all her hand-me-downs. She decides if we should play house, or school or doctor and tells me what to say. I feel like a shadow.”
As her mother, I have a feeling many of the above thoughts were my daughter Lori’s before she began school.
But, once in kindergarten, she blossomed. Unlike her big sister, she loved everything about school, especially bringing homework home. She began to carve her own path.
One winter morning, I received a call from Mrs. Repen, the school secretary at Cottage Grove. Third-grader Lori had suffered a cut in Mr. Madsen’s art class that probably necessitated stitches. (They were using X-Acto knives to carve linoleum blocks – yikes!)
Hurriedly, I bundled up Jon (1) and Chris (5) and drove the couple miles to school. Of course, I worried just how deep the cut might be and just how distraught Lori was.
Arriving at the main entrance, Mr. Dorow, the school principal, escorted her to the car. He opened the front door and there she stood, grinning from ear to ear, one hand supporting the injured on encased in brown paper toweling from the girls’ restroom, and announced, “Finally something exciting happened to me.”
At the Monona Clinic Dr. Kerrihard stitched her wound. We headed home, but she’d have none of it. No, she insisted upon returning to school, where she’d certainly have star status, at least for that day.
We should have known what would happen! Today Lori is a recovery room nurse in the surgical ward at Mayo Hospital in LaCrosse – the bloodier the better! The lesson I learned and would pass on to anyone who might listen – pay attention to the interests your kids display, because they may just lead to a career.
