Contributed by: Angela Roche
My nine-year-old daughter came home from spending the day at her cousin’s house. Her cousin is in the sixth grade and had invited another friend over. Three is never a good number! Lauren snuggled up with me that night and proceeded to tell me that the older girls played the “Let’s-Ditch-Lauren” game.
Lauren isn’t the type of girl to let things bother her and later when she saw the girls jumping on the trampoline, she was determined to be included. Lauren went over and happily asked, “Can I jump with you?” Lauren said the girls jumped away from her and continued to whisper to one another and say things like, “Don’t tell anyone!”
The eternal optimist, Lauren said she really didn’t think her cousin was talking about her but probably it was about something going on at school.
So Lauren said she decided to play with her “leafy friends”.
“Leafy friends?” I asked.
Lauren proceeded to tell me how she went off by herself and collected leaves to play with and tell her story to. But she stated she didn’t just grab any ordinary leaves. Lauren explained that she chose leaves that were different (one with a hole in it, one with dirt, etc.) because those leaves would truly understand her story and what had happened with her cousin.
