Tot is growing up!

Summer is almost here. Three more half-days of school, and two of those are finals.

Tatum is ready…ready to be done! She’s ready for summer. Ready for a reset. Ready for what is next.

Next year, she starts at Veritas. It’s a fresh start since she has basically been with the same kids at the same school since she was 5. 

We have a busy summer ahead: Algebra. Latin. Reading….and just GETTING READY! 

Last night, she told me she feels stuck between two versions of herself.

One version is the “crazy, fun, weird girl” who wears baggy clothes, doesn’t care too much about school or what she wears. The other version is the “smart, pretty, put-together girl.”

OH, wow! That is what they call: Thirteen. That awkward middle.  She is now old enough to wonder who she is. 

So I told her what I hope she remembers. She can be BOTH! I told her about when I had my first job with Eli Lilly as a pharmaceutical rep. I would get dressed in my cute little suit and heels. (What was I thinking!?) I was polished, prepared, professional, and put together. 

I said, “You do not have to shrink yourself into one category just so other people know what to do with you.”

BECAUSE, the second I got home? Hair on top of my head…Face washed, jammies!

And neither version was fake.

We don’t have to choose one! Just so we are still the same person on the INSIDE. .

So I asked Tatum, “What qualities do you want to for sure have? Who do you want to be?”

She said:

Smart.

Pretty.

Kind.

A good friend….(?)

Explain…

Loyal.

A good listener.

Someone who cares about people. (and birdies!) heehee

Okay then, let’s stick to those.

And then I asked, “And a Jesus follower?”

“Yes,” she said. Of course. (That one matters most).

SO THIS SUMMER…is really about….

I think…. preparing her heart.

She does not have to become less fun to be smart, or less weird to be pretty, or less herself to be accepted.

SHE CAN BE: Fully Tatum.

She is just at the beginning of another becoming. I love being on the front seat. 
I LOVE YOU!