I LOVE this girl! - a photo on Flickriver

I LOVE this girl!

            " . . . Se tu segui tua stella,
non puoi fallire a glorioso porto . . . "

  -- Dante, Inferno XV:55-56

I saw this just as I was getting ready to go to bed, whereupon I decided it was worth staying up a bit longer to take this photo and upload it to Flickr. This is a poster made by our daughter Vanessa for a school assignment. She spent most of the day working on it, and both the effort and its result reveal so much about her.

Vanessa is 14, and we adopted her when she was about a year old. I confess that I had some serious reservations about it at the time, and it took a couple of years before I fully accepted her as part of our family. But none of that matters now, as she has proven to be one of the true joys of my life. I wonder sometimes if I have been a good parent, and it is certain that I have, at the very least, been imperfect; but I look at the way she is turning out and think that perhaps, all things considered, I didn't do too badly after all. 

She is kind, thoughtful, conscientous, well-regarded by young people and adults alike, and in many ways unusually mature for her age. She works hard in school and has consistently been an honor student. We have gone through a serious family crisis in recent years, but her older brother and both of her parents agree that Vanessa is the happiest and most well-adjusted member of our family, and evidence of this can be seen right here in this image. This is not, after all, the work of someone who is depressed or dysfunctional. Vanessa is a gifted dancer and a talented photographer, and as you can see here, is trying to decide which of those talents she wants to parlay into a career. I believe she is going to do great things with her life and be hugely successful, and I have told her so many times. 

I call her "kiddo" and enjoy teasing her about Lyndon Baines Johnson, a fact which might make for an interesting story all by itself, but which I don't have time to relate here. In fact, I enjoy teasing her about pretty much anything, and she has a good enough sense of humor that perhaps she will forgive me for that someday. 

Having Vanessa in my life is one of the best things that ever happened to me, and I know I speak for my wife as well when I say that. I just couldn't ask for a better daughter, or a more delightful one. And I hope she gets an "A" for this little project when she turns it in to her teacher tomorrow.

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Taken on: August 17, 2008

Tags:

D50

AF Nikkor 85mm f/1.8D

Vanessa

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Sets appears in: • Pictures with stories

Groups appears in: • Tickle My Fancy • Pictures With Stories - 5 sentence MINIMUM more » • A P P R E C I A T I O N • Nikon D50 Users • Dante Alighieri • My Story • Make Me Happy • The Joy of Life • Nikkor 85mm F1.8D • Things That Delight Me « less

Camera: Nikon D50, f/2.8, 1/80 sec, 85mm (=127mm) (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D50
Aperture:	f/2.8
Exposure Time:	0.013 sec (1/80)
Focal Length:	85mm (35mm equivalent: 127mm)
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Auto, Fired, Return not detected
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0 Windows
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