Legends, Road Trips and Faith

As part of her unit on ancient cultures in social science, S has been learning about legends. A recent class assignment was to write her own.

S brainstormed her legend last weekend while on a road trip to a gaming convention in Bloomington with her dad. She came home with a story so rich with detail and characterization that I wish I could have been in the car with them to take advantage of the energy they generated.

S's fantastical tale tells the story of how the stars came to be in the sky. It begins with a Korean princess who befriends a group of fairies and then must save them from drowning at the Empress' hands. In doing so, she creates the stars in the sky.

As a writer mom I can't help but be tickled by how readily S embraced the creative process. But even more than that, I'm thrilled that she wanted to share her story with her classmates yesterday. Doing so was no trivial thing. You see, S suffers from something called childhood apraxia of speech, which means she understands you fine, and knows what she wants to say, but getting it out requires fits and starts and lots of effort.

S will never grow out of this disability, and being made to "perform" makes matters worse. Despite this fact, S put herself in front of the class yesterday and read her entire legend out loud. I'm told she did beautifully.

Not only am I awed by S's willingness to take such a big risk, I'm humbled by her unwavering faith in herself and her story. Go S.