My girl...writin' bout my girl.

I just wanted to write a little something about my daughter Emily.  I know I already write little somethings about her all the time on here.  But I really find her to be such an amazing person and I just want to take the time to try and convey some of the ways she is,  I'm sure I won't even do her justice.  But here goes.  She is such a loving person.  She respects everyone. She is a friend of the LGBT community,  she believes in equal rights for everyone.  When she finds out someone is gay, she's like... that's AWESOME! She believes people should be WHO they are, and loved for it and if they are gay...well that's just great!   She cares about what's going on in the world.  She talks to me about world events, especially the ones she believes are unfair and social injustices.  It truly bothers her.     I'm proud to say that she is my daughter EVERY SINGLE day! She always cares about doing the right thing.  That's not to say that she doesn't make mistakes, she like the rest of us, often does.  An often used quote of mine is... there are erasers at the end of pencils because everyone makes mistakes.  The most important thing is to admit them and grow from them.  She sometimes isn't forthcoming, I think that's just a maturity thing, she's a teenager after all.  She is trying very hard.  She always tries very hard.  Right now,  one of her most favorite topics is how proud she is that Hillary Clinton could become the FIRST female president, she so wishes she could vote!  She also doesn't like Donald Trump and rightly thinks that he would make a horrible president because among others things, she says he's a bigot because of what he has said about women, Mexicans and Muslims.  She is very smart. Emily has always done well in school and from the start of school until about 7th grade never really needed to study.  Now that she's in high school and advanced classes, it requires more effort from her.  It took a while for her to understand that it didn't mean she wasn't as smart it just meant the courses were getting a lot tougher. Even so, she has never gotten less than a C on any report card ever & up until 7th grade she had never gotten less than an A. She is funny.  I wish more kids could understand that she is super funny.  She has this quick wit about her, and every year it gets a little quicker.  I wish that everyone could see her the way she is at home when she is truly comfortable with you.  But she is shy when it comes to making friends.  It is easier for her to talk to adults than it is for her to talk to kids her own age.  Another issue is she often times wants to talk only about what interest her, and we try often to explain that friendship is a two way street, if someone doesn't feel like you care about what interest them they are not going to want to be your good friend.  It's more of an indifference than her purposely being rude.  She has always struggled some with social issues.  But has made great strides there as well.  We often discuss ways that she could try and make friends.  We sometimes do role-playing.  I say... Imagine I'm a girl sitting in the cafeteria and you walk up to me, how could you start up a conversation.  We go back and forth. She says she is trying in school, but it's hard because everyone already has friends, I think the kids are kind to her,  but are not really friend friends with her.  I think another part of it is that she is a loner.  I don't believe it bothers her too much either. At least that is my hope.  It probably bothers me more than it bothers her.  I think this comes in part from being an only child & having hobbies that are solitary.  Like reading and writing.  She started reading around age 3.  I know it was before her third birthday.  I remember at her 3rd birthday check up she was reading a book and her pediatrician brought in all the nurses so they could see her.  He didn't believe it and we had to proof it to him by giving her a different book because he thought she had it memorized. She's almost sixteen now and books are still a big part of her life, but no longer the biggest part.  Music is now.  She loves music and writing songs.  She also loves BROADWAY especially musicals.  She writes musicals, the one she is writing right now is already 200+ pages and has her own original songs in it. Although she is very smart her favorite class in school is theater arts.  She is a very creative type person.  She loves singing.  She and her daddy do car- pool Karaoke often.  She loves the classic rock band RUSH, and the heavy metal band DISTURBED.  But also likes songs from Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, One direction, Billy Joel and many more.  She knows all the words in Billy Joel's song, "We didn't start the fire" and unlike everyone else I know doesn't get tongue tied while singing it.  Music is a big escape for her.  She listens to music EVERY chance she gets.  There are so many wonderful things I could say about Emily.  She isn't perfect but she is to me.  She is honestly the most amazing person I have ever known and I honestly can't believe she is my daughter.... well our daughter.  The time is flying by, so I'm glad I have this blog to have recorded some of our memories. For her to look and see that this is how I feel about her, and to remember all the things she was into back when she was 15.  She is the greatest blessing in my life, I love her more than  I could ever adequately express and every night in my prayers she gets top billing.