Granddaughter’s personality is emerging

“I’m not a little girl. I’m five!” my granddaughter Emma exclaimed when I wished her happy birthday.

That is how I began a column six short years ago. Now this same granddaughter is 11 and has turned into a murderer, or a hunter, depending upon your point of view.

I grew up with hunters and enjoyed many a fine dinner of rabbit or quail thanks to hunters. We also ate the chickens, ducks, steers and sheep we raised, therefore we were well acquainted with who we were eating at any given meal and exactly where it had grown up. Deer weren’t so populous in those years and we didn’t know anyone who went deer hunting so venison never graced our table.  Since then the deer population has exploded and thinning is necessary. If hunters don’t do it, then nature will.

I know all this and yet I have mixed feelings when I see a grinning Emma next to a beautiful and very dead doe. My feelings are assuaged somewhat by knowing that they will enjoy many meals courtesy of that same dead doe. I appreciate that Emma and her brothers have been taught to respect the damage that guns can do. There are too many people with easy access to firearms that don’t have that same respect.

Times are changing. When I called to wish her a happy birthday last week, she talked for a half an hour or more unlike her little brothers who will barely say a few sentences before handing the phone back to their mom. I heard about her school projects and how unfair it was to have to do homework on her birthday. She wasn’t too upset about the homework as it was easy. All she had to do was simplify some fractions.

I was impressed. I remember when the very mention of fractions would throw our entire class into a tizzy. I can’t remember anyone ever using the words, “fractions” and “easy” in the same sentence.

I heard about the presents she had received, both for Christmas and for her birthday. She was not upset to learn that I hadn’t sent her present from us yet. That is good as I still am not sure what to get for her.

It is such a delight to see her personality emerging. Her laugh is identical to her mother’s. She does a spot on imitation of her step-dad. She is funny, smart and calmer than I have ever been. She has an affinity for dragons and graphic novels. Apparently she is also a good shot.

No, Emma is definitely not a little girl any more, She is at the in-between age where she has a little girl’s enthusiasm and joie de vivre with none of a teen’s insolence or sulkiness.

There are many rites of passage on the way to adulthood. Getting her hunting license and her first doe is just one of them. She has already switched schools and has one more year before junior high. Still to come are more challenging classes, puppy love and the inevitable broken heart, the independence that a driver’s license will bring and countless other milestones in the journey of life.

I have faith that she will accomplish much and do it with grace and humor. I certainly hope that you also have an Emma in your life. It is so much fun to watch loved ones succeed in their endeavors.