I mentioned my daughter (the middle one) who had lived in Spain for a year in a comment to a short post. I thought I would add a photo and some more bragging.
This photo was taken in 2003 on a trip that included England and Italy. She is obviously standing next to the Rosetta Stone in the British Museum.
She is finishing a masters degree in library science at UCLA in June and then will move across town to USC where she will work on her PhD in History, including one more year in Spain. She wants to work on the study of and the cataloguing of Arabic manuscripts from the Andalusian period. She writes and speaks Arabic in addition to Spanish and Portuguese.
I hope she finds time to have kids.
I occasionally interview high school kids for my alma mater. I’m starting to have doubts about urging young smart women to get on the college/career track right away. Maybe we should have a few more incentives for child raising in their more fertile years. I’ve seen many of my cohorts struggle with infertility when they tried to start families later in life.
We have discussed this. She told me that, until she saw her sister-in-law with her three kids, she didn’t think she wanted any. Now, she thinks she does but it will have to fit in her schedule. Her other sister-in-law has a PhD and is a university professor and is to have her first in May.
I invited her to go with me to see Don Rumsfeld next Wednesday. It’s tough to get a spot on her schedule. She has finals and then leaves for China the next day. She and her husband have friends who live in Beijing. Cheap tickets, friends in nice places, adds up to a nice life.
My older son is now sweating out premature labor at 32 weeks with his first. I wasn’t sure he would ever have kids as he is 46 next week. Still, he will be a great father as he is loved by his nieces and nephews.
Isn’t my daughter gorgeous ? What a great kid (30 but a kid to me ) ! They have been all over the world with me and on their own. She is the one who has been on archeological digs at 14,000 feet in Ecuador. She went up to visit a college friend and wound up in charge of a trench because her Spanish skills were better. The professor (UCLA but a good guy) wanted her to change majors. She flew to Hawaii to attend his wedding.That’s how she is.
She goes snow camping where they have to dig down 10 feet to find the toilets. I suggested she join the Army but that wasn’t an option.