F.O.D.

Every family has codes. Some are funny, some are silly, some are serious. When our children were small, we would speak most command words and phrases to them in Russian . . . they seemed to respond much more quickly for some reason when we did that, although we never did figure out why. It is a miracle that our kids turned out remotely as well as they have so far, considering the places we have dragged them to and through, and still do.

My code-speak for Heidi is F.O.D. That would mean that she is Favorite Oldest Daughter since I have two daughters, and they both are my favorite, daughters that is . . . recently I wrote about my favorite son here. Heidi often signs her letters and emails to me FOD. And frankly, she should . . . she is amazing.

We were just visiting with her last week while she was on Spring Break and we were finishing a mini tour raising money and teams for our Parent Organization. I rediscovered that there are vast differences between my 18 year old college sophmore, and the average 18 year living in the States. Now I am not taking credit for those differences, because it is impossible to discern which of them are due to the trauma of being our daughter and which of them are simply due to being an MK, and which of them are due to Heidi just being Heidi.

As I sit here in the Zurich airport looking at the light snow falling, thinking about the week we just spent together; the differences I noted in Heidi versus her roommates at college and other gals her age are striking.

1. Delayed gratification: This is almost a forgotten concept in the world of people my age, but in Heidi’s world, this is a completely unknown, never-before-discovered idea! Everyone has everything, and they have it now! Yet Heidi is doing without many of the things that all her peers have, in order to complete her education as soon as possible and with as little debt as possible.
2. Focus: I was flabbergasted to see the level of her focus. Few people have such good solid sustained focus. Most folks, regardless of age, are fairly unfocused and lack concentration or even goals. Heidi has them all in droves.
3. Hard Work: My three teenagers have complained frequently in their lives, that all the other kids work part-time jobs and have tons more disposable income than they do. I do not allow my kids to work real jobs until them reach college . . . then work is expected, not only allowed. Heidi now works two jobs, has a fulltime load of classes, and manages her time quite nicely. It is rare to see someone her age work so hard. Her roomies would be a much more typical example . . . they start a movie at about 11:00 pm each evening, while Heidi is going to sleep (because she has to get up early and go to work), and then Heidi gets up, goes to work, then to class, and returns to their room to find both roomies are generally still sleeping.
4. Intelligence: This is not one that she has more of than other people her age, just how she applies it is fascinating to watch. Her understanding of people and academics is just so good . . . it’s like she is much older than 18.

And I could go on and on, but suffice it to say that I am so proud of her, she is definitely the F.O.D.