A Great Girl

Parent Teacher Conference Time.

I arrive at the school and I'm ushered into the reception area.

"Meredith is a joy to have around," says her teacher.

I beam proudly.

"She volunteers to sweep the classroom every afternoon," he continues. "Every day at recess, she voluntarily gives up 10-15 minutes to stay behind and help Miss Ruby set up lunches for the class."

She is five and a half years old.

She's a Great Girl, I think to myself.

She's the kid who will actually carry the cans to the food shelter. She's the kid who will actually hang decorations for the party. She's the one who will be baking the cupcakes.

The acerbic Florence King once skewered Hillary Clinton as a former Great Girl. It wasn't a compliment. Her point was that the Great Girls usually have ulterior motives. They want to get into the right college/grad school/job, so they choose a community service to put on their resume.

Miss King writes:

Striving for healthy averageness, good adjustment, and earnest purpose, the Great Girl made a point of being "well-rounded."........

Uncerebral but as smart as the proverbial whip, the Great Girl belonged to one of those female honor societies with a name like The Valkyries that required a B average and emphasized "service to the school," meaning you couldn't get in unless you had so many extracurricular activities that the printer had a nervous breakdown trying to get them all on the same yearbook page with your picture. She never met a committee she didn't like, so she had little cuts on her fingers from making pasteboard signs with razor blades, and if you couldn't find her, all you had to do was follow the crepe-paper trail.

She nailed me, all right. I was a phony Great Girl. I never did anything without wondering how this would look on my college application, my law school application, my job applications...etc.

I'm not one who idealizes my children. Meredith can be whiny, oversensitive, and manipulative. She's frustratingly stubborn (i.e. she won't do what I think she should do).

But she genuinely loves to do for others.

We received a mystery invitation this year to the awards ceremony.

"To the Clueless Family," it read. "Someone in your family will be recognized at the awards ceremony".....

One year ago I sat in the school's auditorium and listened to the headmistress describe the young lady who would be named the Best All Around for that year.

She arrives at school every day with a smile on her face....
She always takes time to help the other children...
She takes the lead when it comes time to set an example...

I poked Roger. "Won't be Madeleine!" I whispered. And it wasn't. (Madeleine took the academic honors).

This year though, I'll be sitting in the audience hoping that Meredith's name will be called for Best All Around.