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Get ready to feel old. This month a girl named Serra Crawford will graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a bachelor's degree. This month Serra Crawford will also turn 16.
And here I usually shock people when I tell them I was 16 when I graduated from high school. I was practically an old woman when compared to the Wisconsin teenager who started taking college courses at 10. TEN!
I love that a kid has the guts to go off to college at 10 years old and sit in a classroom with a bunch of 18-year-old kids. I love that she's got the brains to do it! We all spend our kids' early years crossing our fingers that they will develop into geniuses, and we push them toward greatness. But this comment from Crawford hit me hard:
I definitely think there are some times that I am missing out on high school, but I think overall, this is just a great opportunity for me because I'll be graduating at 16, and I'll have five years to do whatever I want to do something really spectacular -- either get an extra degree or volunteer work.
Five years to go volunteer or get another degree? What about hanging out with friends at the mall or wasting an entire day sleeping? Isn't that what being a teenager is about?
I don't mean to knock this kid. I really don't. If this is what she loves, more power to her. Her parents should be very proud.
And yes, if my kid wanted to do that, I'd be proud of her too. But I'll be honest with you. I don't have a secret desire for my kid to follow in those footsteps. I want her to be a child for as long as she can, to play childish games, and dream childish dreams.
We spend so much of our lives being adults, so much of our adult lives feeling "old." And there's only so much time that we get to just be young.
What do you think about when you hear child prodigies have graduated college at such a young age?
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