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Celebrating Daughters

© April Lee Schmidt

Now that the day to celebrate Mothers is past, I would like to think about celebrating daughters.

I consider my own 13-year-old daughter,Samantha, worthy of celebrating. She is courageous, tolerant, and compassionate and has an amazing sense of right and wrong. Because of a genetic disorder (Marfan's syndrome), she is spending her adolescent years wearing a back brace, taking medication to lower her heart rate and aid her pulmonary system. She is also struggling with all the normal anxieties of going through puberty.

Samantha has a growing sense of humor, a budding spirituality and an amazing sense of right and wrong. Oh sure as her mother I am probably just a little on the boastful side. Yet as I look around at all that our daughters face today I find that she is one of many.

Many of our daughters deal with much worse on a daily basis. Most struggle with society's preconceived notions of how they should behave and look. Many are persecuted daily for their differences, disadvantages or disabilities. Our daughters face many different problems than we did at their age; problems we never heard or dreamed of such as school violence, date rape drugs, and a completely new set of social diseases.

I would like to take a day to honor our daughters and celebrate their positive attributes. Perhaps if we look at the world through our daughters' eyes we can gain a better understanding of any negative attributes and behaviors and really get a sense of the strength and courage they possess.