The Student is the Teacher

The summer my daughter turned three-years-old, she wouldn't swim at our beach. In fact, she wouldn't go anywhere near our beach without crying and screaming her head off. She was afraid of the crabs.

Today, she spent an hour on the beach collecting sea life and showing them to us. She'd tell us all about what kind of crabs they were and how she could tell. She explained how one could differentiate between male and female.

"How do you know all of this?" my mother asked.

"I read all about it in a book, " my daughter answered.

I always think of my daughter as the child who is most interested in fairies, princesses, fairy tale love, and unicorns. But in truth, she will always choose a non-fiction book over a story. Her favorite school subject is science and she wants to be either a veterinarian or a marine biologist when she grows up.

It's amazing to me how I can have an image of my child in my head the doesn't quite jive with what she really is. It's even more amazing how she has changed as she's grown.

At her core, she isn't much different today then when she was as a toddler. In fact, I think most of her personality traits were in evidence when she was an infant. But she has grown so much. She is continually surprising me. And she is continually teaching me.

Even about crabs.