Transferred from my other blog: The Adventures of Sisterhood.
First published: 3-12-12 at 10:03 PM EDT
You tell Kylie to say "bye bye," and she'll wave and say bye bye. She
knows what it means to go "pick up sissy" , and she'll readily crash
into daddy's arms when he says it. She knows how to "go to
mommy/daddy/sissy" and "give this to mommy/daddy sissy." She'll lean in
her chubby cheek if you say "kissy" in Chinese or English, and as I
mentioned before, she readily gives everyone high fives. She can't
really talk yet, but some of the words she's experimenting with are the
Chinese words for mommy, daddy, sissy, horsey, and cat, and dog, apple,
hug, and llama in English.
At just over 16 months old,
Kylie is undoubtedly in one of the fastest-paced learning, most
innocent, enriched-experience points of her childhood. She's just
starting to understand how life and all it's little pieces work, the
clockwork of her brain just beginning to click and whir. Because she's
just beginning to understand, she's in a state of perfect bliss. The low
points of her day are having to go to nap-time and when mommy doesn't
want to hold her. With this in mind, I'd like to state my wish for Kylie
when she grows up.
There is a race to "need" to know
everything you possibly can leading up to the adolescent years, starting
in 4th or 5th grade. In those years, kids start trying to catch the sex
jokes on late night TV from Fridays and Saturdays, start experimenting
with foul language, and wish to act rebellious. Kylie's hunger to learn
won't fade for a long, long time, and eventually, her path will cross
the evils. I promise to myself and my baby sister that once she starts
getting exposed to these things, I pledge to be a positive influence and
steer her away. Knowledge about health and safety from the mundane
busy-work given to preteens and teens during "Health Week" or just any
health class isn't really busy-work; such knowledge is power, and
completely necessary for one's safety. However, knowledge of perverted,
dirty, and young child inappropriate phrases, jokes, and discussion in
general is NOT power.
At this point in time, there is
also a race for popularity. Most of the guys and girls at the top of the
food chain fall under a category of folk who know the correct answers
to suggestive questions. The athletic, good looking,
perverted-joke-makers aren't necessarily going to be the best off in the
future. In fact, they may not be the smartest or the happiest right
then. The more fakeness, the more stress, the more likely to have to
hide behind something to "keep up your cool."
As her
older sister, I'll of course support all of her level-headed decisions.
There is, however, one expectation I've already set for her: stay
innocent as best as you can, for as long as you can. Never ever feel
the need fall behind a facade. Masked people aren't as happy as they
can be, and I wish for you to be as happy as you can be. Be a strong
girl, Kylie, and be happy and amazing and generous and love with all
your heart.
As sappy and sentimental as this post may
sound, it's something that people need to hear more often. Here in high
school, teenagers with raging hormones and crazy ideas act dramatic and
rambunctious daily. They get lost in the sea of pituitary glands. They
lose themselves and their honesty towards themselves. They develop
facades behind which they hide what they think are true feelings, and
the facades make them generally miserable. They fight and claw and bite
their ways up the coolness pyramid that also happens to be full of sex
jokes. I'm one of the lucky few that truly believes that I live a great
life. And there's absolutely nothing more than true happiness, even in
her "rebel years," that I can wish for Kylie as she grows up.
-Chichi
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