Today is the last day of school for my daughter. As of this afternoon, she will have completed Kindergarten. Everyone says that time flies when you’re raising children, and that is so true. This feels like a landmark moment, so I thought I’d spend a few minutes writing about my daughter, the Kindergarten graduate, at age six.
Her world is one of beauty and magic. Her fertile imagination has her believing in fairies, mermaids, leprechauns and angels. She is a budding artist, and all of her drawings consist of rainbows, flowers and happy, smiling mermaids or fairies (or a combination of the two into a mermaid fairy) that are smiling and look just like her.
Her teacher sent home a binder with her school work and art work from throughout the year, and it was so fun to look at. The first page said, “What is special about me is my Mom and My Dad”. Every single person she drew is happy, and she doesn’t like her own artwork until it leaves the satisfactory level of beauty in her eyes.
Last week, she did a project at home she titled ”Map of My Heart”. On it, she glued a picture of her parents, one of her as a toddler, and then she wrote all the things she loves, including, “dogs, dolls, bike, swim, girl scouts”. She also wrote that she wants to dance and be a nurse when she grows up.
My daughter is the essence of the innocence of childhood right now. I want to put her in a bubble to maintain this beautiful, happy impression of the world that she currently has. One day something will happen to put a damper on her world of magic and smiles, but I will do my best to make sure that day isn’t for a long time.
For now, I will relish the moments where she thinks the light reflections on the wall are fairies watching down on her, and when we sing loudly and off key together as we drive around Reno.
Each night as I put her to bed, I tell her that she is my dream come true. I can’t imagine what my life would have been like without her.
