On a long car trip my 18 year old daughter said two things to me that deeply impacted me not only because she said but she really seems to get the application of them.
First she told me that she's learned so far that whenever one door closes it leaves space for another one to open. She told me about several experiences she'd had over the years that at the time felt like disappointments only to lead her to a brand new, in its own way, better experience.
That took me over 40 years to REALLY get and I'm still learning it.
Second we were talking about her taking Calculus in school and she told me that the subject matter of the class didn't matter as much (she's going to forget it ultimately anyway). What matters is the increasingly challenging examples by which she learns to frame and solve problems.
That one really floored me because that took me almost as long to really understand about education. And by the time I really learned it I was out of school.
If these were two of her main guiding lights (and not many more) going to school, she will experience, see and learn things that I never did and that makes me extraordinarily happy.
For those of you that are parents of teenagers, I can tell you there is NO better way to open the doors to communication than a long car ride where my daughter is the dj. I knew very little of the music, but she knew it all and enjoyed it.
And it was the perfect soundtrack for a long conversation where I heard this and SO much more over the course of the drive
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