Oh, seventh grade

Met up with one of the kidlet's friends that we haven't seen for a year or so, and unexpectedly she's started turning into one of those sighing, eye-rolling, bored teens-in-training. "I hate my school," she says, "and when I'm at school, I'm bored and I want to go home, but then I go home and it's just as boring as school."

It's a sorry irony of middle school: If you have a culture that punishes people when they demonstrate enthusiasm, then -- since enthusiasm is what makes people interesting -- everyone in it is going to be really, really boring. Including yourself.

The kidlet is interested in all kinds of crazy things -- the derivation of 'mare' and whether it's related to 'mars' (no), pet frilled dragons, home-based businesses, toddlers, whether every ice cream in the church freezer contains high-fructose corn syrup (all but one), what it's like to try to quit smoking, why Dominion cards smell the way they do ... that's just today's list -- but somehow the culture of their middle school is very friendly to enthusiasm, even the awkward nutty geeky kind.

Oh, seventh grade. I wouldn't go through you again for all of Lydia and love besides.