Ali-Jo: A Reason To Be Great

OK, that's not really her name. But it's a cute contraction of her first and middle names. She is my niece. Depending on who you count, she is either my eldest niece or my middle niece.

I love this kid. I mean, I love her siblings, too. Equally, for real. But this kid is special to me. She once told me "I'm not a daddy's girl, I'm an Auntie Sonya's girl!" so I know the feeling is at least a little reciprocal.

Today she had an amazing conversation with her mom, that went something like this:
Niece: Mom, what day of the week is it?
Niece's Mom: Why don't you tell me?
N: Is it Monday?
NM: No, Monday comes at the beginning of the week, today is closer to the end."
N: Is it Tuesday?
NM: No Baby, Tuesday comes right after Monday.
N: Is it Threesday?
NM: (trying to stay serious) No
N: Foursday? Monday, Tuesday, Threesday, Foursday, Fivesday... no wait... Monday, Tuesday, Threesday....

So, on the surface, totally adorable little conversation, right? And it is. And she is. My gosh, is she ever! But it's more, too. See, this girl is a month from being four years old. Four. And yet she took (what she thought was) a verbal pattern and extrapolated the pattern correctly. That takes some pretty heavy brain power. Young Ali-Jo has always been good with words. A great talker, good vocabulary, remarkably expressive (and occasionally seem unable to STOP talking, lol) all from pretty early on.

And it's awesome and amazing. And a little scary for me. Because I see that whole good with words trait pretty clearly in myself as well. And God bless this tiny girl, I do not want her following my footsteps in pretty much anything. She sometimes does things where she is clearly wanting to be like me (I know, little kids do this, but still). Here we are, both having tattoos.

I was just talking to a friend about this. I said something like "I worry sometimes about how much she takes after me. Especially as she seems to feel particularly close to me. I don't want her adding to any possible genetics by role-modeling me." (Heh, I love how any noun can become a verb and everyone knows what you mean.)

I want the world for this kid. No, wait, I want a totally better world for this kid. And I know I don't want her to ever be where I've been. I don't want her in the same zipcode as where I've been. I mean, this doesn't keep me up at night or anything, but it's something I think about from time to time, especially when she does something that I can easily relate to myself.

It occurred to me in a way that really felt a lot like an epiphany, during this conversation with my friend that I quoted above. Let's just say that Ali-Jo does decide to emulate me at some point in her life. Wouldn't I want her to have the best role models possible, so that she can become the best Ali-Jo possible? And if there's even a slim chance that at some point I will be a role model for her then like... man... what better reason to do my darnedest to become as great as possible?

This is the first time I feel like I've had a real, concrete but still deeply involving, reason to go for great.