My daughter and I are both at high school orientation sitting around a triangular table, like Judy Chicago's the Dinner Party. I put my arm around the parent next to me and say, "These four years are going to fly by." which leads to a montage of sad moments in high school like the day in the locker room when a girl told me she was going to the prom with the boy I liked. I say to myself, struggle and sadness are normal. We need them in our lives. We need to learn grit and resiliency.

We are playing a mixer game. There's a large triangle laid out on the ground. The leader reads a statement, and we all move to where on the triangle we think best matches the statement. For the first one, I can't understand it. I think I know what it means but several negatives in the sentence could change it to the opposite. Most of the group heads in one direction. They go far out on the grass. I am wavering. They were wrong. I would have been right if I had taken it more slowly and believed in myself. I say remember this.

The other group stays way out on the grass, too cool to be in close. Rose and I keep playing on the triangle. On the next question, we both move to the same spot, and we are right. Rose fist bumps me and says, "We've got this, Mom."