"A Gift"

Last night, my wife and I went to our oldest daughter's middle school for Curriculum Night. We got to meet her teachers & find out what they'll be working on this school year. When we met her PE teacher, he didn't immediately place our daughter's name (he's been at it for a long time, and has about 200 kids in his classes this year). As we were chatting, it finally dawned on him who Natalie is. His eyes lit up when I told him she was running cross country for the second year in a row. I told him we had run together this summer. He talked about how hard she works in PE and how happy he was that she was in XC, saying he thought she has "a gift." Well, I'm not sure how a "gift" is defined in this context, but ol' Dad felt a little pride swell up when he said that. I told Natalie what her PE teacher said when we got home. I hope it doesn't put too much pressure on her!

Oh...and I happened to read something she's working on for one of her classes. In a paragraph talking about the lifestyle she enjoys, she says, "I love running. It frees you."

Daddy's gotta stop now before he can't see the computer screen...

8-)