First Job Application, Age 8

My daughter is, in many ways, a pretty laid back kid. While she can be entertaining, she doesn't necessarily feel comfortable with the attention. She's for the most part unassuming. It's a challenge to keep her focused on a task at hand most of the time. She's definitely more of a multi-tasker. Given this, I get caught off guard when, once in while, she demonstrates a rather quiet intensity or drive. Of course, I've seen it. When she decided she was going to learn to do a cartwheel, she applied herself to it every single day for months. When she was 4, she had what I called "enunciation week". In one week's time she focused on all the vocal sounds that she had been making incorrectly and corrected her speech. She never said anything about the fact that she was doing it. She never mentioned that she even cared that she couldn't say "th" or that hard g's sounded like j's. She just had an internal clock go off, set an intention and stuck with it until her voice transformed.

At 3, she left a circus performance saying, "I want to do that." She persisted in that quest for years. At age 6, we took her to a trapeze class where she had to do the real thing 30 feet up in the air. (I had to do it, too, which was interesting.) She was scared but she did everything including a back flip dismount and a "catch" flying off her bar and being caught by one of the instructors. She didn't want to go back. "It was higher than I thought it would be." We thought that was the end of it. But last year she started asking to go back. We enrolled her in Circus Arts school this past spring. In September she quietly declared to me, "that's my career."

Obviously, I have experienced her having an inner compass that is clearly grounded in True North and does not lose it's direction due to outside forces.

This week, she came home from school with all the usual papers: homework, a reminder for us to sign for the parent-teacher conference, a package about participating in the Kid's Art fundraiser and some work product from last week. Also in her folder was an application to join the team working on the yearbook. This is new. In the past, there has been an informal "picture book" done by some of the staff, but this year they decided to have a student-created yearbook. They're seeking 10 students to do page layout, editing, photography and ad sales. Rhianna had me read the whole thing to her. She didn't say anything and I thought we were moving on. I began to put the paper back into the folder when she said, "Mom! I need to fill that out!" She quietly said, "I want to be a photographer." I made sure she understood the responsibility and she said she did. Then she had to fill out the application, with the understanding that she might not be chosen, so she had to try to convince the teachers to pick her.

The four questions and her answers:

There you have it. Her first job application. At age 8. I didn't even know what a job application was at that age. So, while she has established one career in the Circus, at age 8, she's already got a supplemental career in the works. Never underestimate the industriousness of a seemingly laid back, unfocused child.