Daughter #1 Continued
Our original assessment about Ashley became even more apparent as time passed. She was very bright and always made excellent grades. However, her attention span was short, and keeping her entertained could be quite a chore. She was well behaved (most of the time) as long as she had something to occupy her mind; once she started school, she was fine.
We also noticed that the strong will continued to hang around. She and I had many battles about what to wear, starting when she was around three. I remember asking the doctor for his advice, and he suggested that I choose three outfits and let her decide which one she liked. Invariably, she didn’t like ANY of them and would try to choose her own from the closet, which was usually something like pink pants and a striped orange and brown shirt. Eventually, I admit to giving up many times and letting her wear what she wanted instead of going through the hassle of arguing.
Not long ago she was looking through some old class pictures, and she said, “Mom, I can’t believe you let me wear this outfit to school!” I looked at the photograph, and she had worn a plaid shirt with striped pants and none of the colors matched. I just bit my tongue and kept quiet . . . mostly.
Of course, she improved as she matured, but she did make up her mind about where she wanted to go to college when she was just a sophomore in high school. Her choice was a Christian university located about 482.5 miles away (according to the genius. To me, it was a “good day’s drive.”) We had hoped that she would go somewhere closer to home, and also try to get some scholarship money.
She actually won a full Air Force ROTC scholarship to any college in the country that had an Air Force program, but she was set on this university that provided only a fraction of the tuition for her academic scholarship.
I will always be proud of her decision. She wanted it and she went after it. During the school year, she worked 20 hours in the school cafeteria, and each summer she held 3 different jobs in order to pursue her goal. She was able to pay a good portion of her expenses each year. She graduated in 1984 Magna Cum Laude from the college of her choice.
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