Today our budding 4th grader returned home from what according to all accounts was a banner start to the year. (Naturally the bar is set high considering that on her first day of 2nd grade she puked in the trash can and came straight home – but that’s another post entirely.)
Excitedly pulling a brown paper sack from her book bag, she proceeded to tell me how they had to fill the bag with something from each of the 8 categories designated by the teacher on the assignment sheet. We went over the categories together discussing what she thought might be a reflective representation of each until we reached the one titled “A place you’d like to visit.” Smugly I thought of her international heritage, her trip to Australia, her love of thumbing through the pages of our vacation albums which include pictures of France, England, Israel, South Africa and other exotic locations I was sure had piqued her curiosity many times over. “So how will you narrow, THAT one down?” I asked. She paused for a moment, then said, “I thought I would put ‘The Bass Pro Shop’ because I really want to go there.” There was no mistaking the incredulous look on my face – I could feel my pupils dilating as I listened to her answer, all the while formulating eloquent and supportive comebacks to this answer, but in the end the words “are you kidding me?” were all I could get out. Pondering my response, but undeterred, she shrugged obligingly, “Well, or, we could just put Seaworld?”
