When Alicia started the eighth grade, she came home with her first assignment for English class, and low and behold, the assignment was for me. I had a week to write a million words or less about my beautiful daughter. I am posting it here because I think it bears reprinting.
Alicia was born on a clear, bright day on the 20th of May in 1997. She arrived a full three weeks early, much to the surprise of the doctor who told me just days before that I still had plenty of time to prepare for her birth. Her early arrival doesn’t surprise me now at all. If it is one quality that Alicia has, it is a need to be punctual. The phrase “fashionably late” does not exist in her world. She arrives early for school, and youth group. All of her assignments are completed long before they are due. Many a night has been spent helping her finish a project that I assumed was due the next day. Upon completion, I would find out that it was due the following week. She reached all of her developmental milestones early as well. From walking to talking, writing to reading, she was always ahead of others her own age. She is the embodiment of the phrase, “Why wait for tomorrow, for what you can do today”.
Ever since she was small, Alicia has loved books. Her father and I spent so many hours reading to her that we could recite books in our sleep. To this day, I can still recall word for word of “Jessie Bear, What Will You Wear?”, while her father is forever imprinted with “Go, Dog Go!”. Her love of books made her enamored with the printed word. She could write and spell her name at two years old. I will never forget taking her to a mommy and me class. The first day the teacher spelled her name wrong on her name tag. She said, “A-L-I-C-I-A spells Alicia. This name is wrong!”. Shocked, the teacher changed her tag. She still loves books and spends her vacations and summers devouring novels. Her well worn favorites adorn her bookshelves in her room.
Alicia’s name is the Spanish version of Alice, and that is the pronunciation that she prefers. Many doctors, dentists, and teachers have pronounced her name “Alisha” and she quickly corrects them. Now, 13 years old, she has resigned herself to the fact that many people will say her name wrong. Her friends call her Lecie, a name she called herself as soon as she could speak. A select group of friends call her Momoko, after her favorite Japanese character. Her younger brother and sister simply call her “sis”.
Music has always been an important part of her life. Ever since infancy, there has been music playing in her room. It may have started with Baby Mozart and Sesame Street, but it continues today with an Ipod filled to the brim with every genre of music you could imagine. Her favorites are Fall Out Boy, Paramore, and Owl City.
Her love of music led the way to dancing and singing. When she was young, she took many dance classes and still loves to dance today. She enjoys taking part in the after school dance program at OPMS. Alicia is my songbird. She loves to sing and has a beautiful voice. She has also been in choir since elementary school and this will be the first year that she won’t participate in choir. I will miss hearing her beautiful voice perform.
Alicia’s room is the “tech department” of our house. I joke to her grandparents that she was born with “plug and play” technology. Anything that lights up, plays music, computes or snaps photos falls into her domain of expertise. Just the other day I remarked how I wished I could put a photo from the computer on my cell phone. A look of pity washed over her face as her fingers sailed across the keyboard at lightening fast speed. Two seconds later, my phone chirped that I had a message. There was the photo I wanted. Sometimes I think I will find a USB plug at the end of one of her fingers.
The one thing that Alicia is most interested in is Asian culture. She has always loved Asian cuisine, and was able to use chopsticks appropriately without ever being shown. She watches television in Japanese on the internet, listens to pop music from Japan, and pod casts that teach Japanese. Her favorite is Japanese anime. She reads manga books translated into English. She has her own blog about the different anime cartoons, and is always drawing her version of manga, which are beautiful girls with big doe eyes. Her favorites are Tokyo Mew Mew and Ojamajo DoReMi. In the long term, she wants to visit Japan when she is older. In the short term, she is looking forward to going to ComiCon with Ariel next summer. Many friends don’t understand her tastes, but I am proud that she finds her own interests and doesn’t care what others think.
Always the social butterfly, Alicia has many friends at school and church of varying ages. As a Facebook regular, she keeps in touch with school friends, friends who have moved out of state, former teachers, and long distance family members that we usually only see at Christmas.
I can always count on Alicia to help around the house. She is an amazing big sister to her three siblings. She is patient, kind and loving with them. She has helped to change diapers, even the stinky ones, and we all know how gross that is!
How do you sum up such an amazing girl in a million words or less? It’s hard, but here it goes….She’s bright and funny. Beautiful and photogenic. Her eyes sparkle when she smiles. She has an infectious laugh and a crazy sense of humor that the two of us share. She looks like her father, talks like her mother, but is entirely her own unique person. Flaming hot Cheetos, Three Musketeers, and the occasional Vanilla Frappacino from Starbucks are her favorite treats. She will eat anything but green vegetables. Pork ribs, Sheppard’s pie, Chinese food, and cheesecake are her favorites. She is the queen of Wii Fit and holds all the #1 rankings in our house. She’s a Taurus and sometimes can be a bit bullheaded. She has a fiery temper, but is fiercely protective of those she loves, including her friends. She has strong hands and gives the world’s best foot massage. A go getter, she works hard to achieve whatever she wants. A natural born leader, she will undoubtedly be the CEO of her own corporation. Without a doubt in our minds, her father and I know she has a bright future ahead. We see her for exactly who she is: an incredible girl that we are blessed to be able to call our Daughter.
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