Sarah went to nursery school at the Jewish Community Center. It had larger classes and offered afternoon activities like gymnastics or swimming. This worked for Sarah. After a full morning of activity and socializing, Sarah was ready for some more activity and socializing.
As I write this, I realize that this would strike some adults that know the two girls as backwards. To the adult world, Emma appeared to be the outgoing and gregarious child. Sarah always appeared shy and reserved. But in the world of their peers, especially when they were younger, the roles were reversed. Emma felt much less at ease in that arena and Sarah would really let go and be herself.
I guess that’s just more evidence of how complex we all are. We are tempted to sum each other with concise labels: nice, mean, generous, stingy, outgoing, shy. But it’s not that easy, is it?
Wonderful point.
ReplyDeleteI truly love the picture of your two girls, Nancy. I have to say that while my heart aches constantly for Teddy, sometimes the sharpest pain for me is to see my younger son, Clay, sitting on the sofa without his big brother Teddy to talk to, to wrestle with, to play video games, to learn Java, and just to hang out. Seeing Clay without Teddy ... it really seems like there's a missing limb ...
ReplyDeleteIt is so true that how we look to the outside world is so often so opposite from how we actually are. Evan and Reed, like Emma and Sarah were so different. Evan always sat in the front of the class, Reed in the back, Evan was the first to speak up, Reed was very quiet. Evan looked like the extrovert, the one who seemed to want to be around people, yet he would come home from school and say he needed to unwind, to decompress because he was so stressed. No one had any idea how difficult it was for him because he was pretending it wasn't. Although he wanted to live in the dorm at college, he came home almost every weekend for the safety and quiet of his room. I think Evan and I spoke everyday, even when he spent a semester in England. Reed has surprised us all. I guess slow and steady like the tortoise he has matured to a confident, articulate, socially confident 20 year old who is away at college and I never hear from.
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