I think my daughter (an occasional visitor here) has had a pretty interesting life:
Born in Moscow to an American dad and a Russian mom; perfectly bilingual at the age of 2 1/2.
Brought up in the Anglican Church in Moscow.
Taught herself to read at the age of three.
Started learning French in a specialized school at five.
Visited Siberia, the US, Egypt, Spain, Slovenia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, the Black Sea, Canada by the age of eight.
Attended a weekend school for the performing and visual arts in Moscow.
Lived with me in Latvia and emigrated to Canada at the age of ten.
Visited Russia and Latvia many times since then.
Finished middle and high school at the top of her class.
Attended a specialized school for the performing and visual arts in Wexford.
Does ESL tutoring.
Just started at Victoria College, University of Toronto, majoring in English.
Not bad for somebody just 18!
I did two stints in AmeriCorps NCCC, in 2004 and 2009, traveling the country working on public service projects, digging ditches, tutoring kids, partying backstage with rock stars in New Orleans and herding goats on Long Island. I moved half-way across the country to move in with a guy I met on the internet; moved half-way across the world to Istanbul; got tear-gassed during a riot while I was there. My biological grandfather was a convicted murderer, and the paternal side of my family is like a degenerated dynasty of Southern aristocrats from a Faulkner novel. On my mother’s side I’m descended from sharecroppers and ne’er-do-wells. I survived several tornados, a hurricane, and a violent beating/attempted rape. When I lived in New Orleans I played washboard with my busker friends down by the river. Once upon a time I danced in the woods with hippies and bathed in a mountain stream at the Rainbow Gathering in 2005. I met my favorite celebrity and became friends with him. My other friends include a former juvenile deliquent car thief-turned-Orthodox Jew and a 71-year-old Deadhead who moonlights as a volunteer firefighter. Steranko hit on me when I met him at NY Comic Con. I sang backing vocals (okay, it was actually moaning) on a rock song. I work at a comic book store and I’m dating someone who is, if anything, way more interesting than myself (ex.: he for real-real ran away with the circus).
I’m 28 years old.
My thoughts exactly, unfortunately.