My only grandchild is now 25 years old and a second grade school teacher. She recently won a scholarship to study for a master's degree in early childhood education to continue her career. However, she keeps saying that she's so busy with teaching that she doesn't have time to study.
As a young girl such as she is now, I didn't have the opportunity to further my education as my parents didn't think girls needed anything more than a high school degree, and to know how to clean house and care for children and a husband. Times have changed. Two months ago, at age 78, and retired, and after studying for 8 years, I finally earned a PhD in botanical medicine. I try to impress upon my granddaughter that the learning experience of working toward her master's degree now, while she's young, will keep her mind active and reaching for higher levels while she's teaching these youngsters. She'll be able to use her higher education not only to teach the children, but to encourage them to continue learning. While I was studying, I always told her about what I'd written, courses I was taking, and new things I'd learned in the hopes that it would spark her enthusiasm and get her to start working on that higher degree. She likes to hear about my learning experiences and I hope they encourage her to take advantage of the scholarship. In addition, both she and I are runners, although she's faster than I am (and 54 years younger!) so we can talk about the races she runs (and wins!) and I share memories of races I've run. Oh, and my son married her mother when my granddaughter was 7 years old, and I adoped her father (my son) when he was just born, so she likes to hear that both she and her Dad are adopted, and that makes her know that we're all family forever no matter how we found each other! That's another reason to include her in family history because our history is now her history.