Hi! It’s me! Lily!
The one and only!
There are other Lilies, but only one me!
My days are sooo full. I guess that’s a good thing, but there’s always something to do. I practice piano for at least an hour. I study Japanese for at least an hour. I do other schooling too…. math, science, etc. But truthfully, math and science are boring. I’m okay at them, but it’s just numbers and symbols and stuff, and you move them around. But why?
So after Dave got home from a job site, I asked him that question. I told him that I like math and science well enough, but I don’t understand why it’s so important for me to learn. After all, I’m learning all this other cool stuff, right?
He thought for a moment, then he took me out to my car.
“Have I ever told you how this works?”
I frowned. “No,” I said. “You told me how to change the oil and tires, and basically said gas makes it go and oil keeps it going.”
He sighed. Then he proceeded to launch into the most detailed and…. interesting.. explanation of what makes a car go that I’d ever heard. He explained how there’s a shaft in there, and pistons, and they slam down on the shaft and make it turn, and how the gasoline is sprayed in very exact measures into the cylinders. Then he explained that there’s a computer in there that controls everything – in fact, more than one computer, and they’re all connected together and talk to each other. He showed me the battery, and the alternator, and even popped out the ignition coils to show me how they worked.
And then he pulled out something he called a scan tool, plugged it into something I didn’t even know existed underneath the dashboard, and showed me all of the data that the car is sending all the time.
After all that, he turned to me, and said simply, “That’s why science is important.”
“But why do I have to read all these books and study all that math?”
“When you’re learning Japanese, did you just walk up to a Japanese person and start speaking in Japanese?”
“No… there’s a whole bunch of things to learn first. Like hiragana… and katakana… and grammar… science is like that?”
He nodded. “First you have to learn the language, then you understand how things work. And you can use it to build and fix things.”
“Can I make something?”
“What do you want to make?”
Hmm. “Let me think about that.”
“Well, I’ll help you, but we’re not building a car.”
I laughed. “Why not?”
He got a thoughtful look on his face. “Do you really want to learn how to do that?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. But it’d be more interesting than boring math books, right?”
He sighed. “Let me think for a while. I agree that we could make your schooling a little more interesting. We’ve been trying to keep up the model of public school, and… maybe that’s not the best way. Let me think.”
I shrugged. It’s all I could ask.
We went back into the house, and Sabby was in the kitchen.
“Sabby!,” I said. “I had an idea!”
“What’s that?,” she asked. She was sauteeing or frying something. It smelled amazing.
“Maybe you should start selling your cookies!”
She paused and looked at me. “Sell my cookies?”
“Sure! You make so many of them already! And people like them! Why not spruce them up a bit and sell them online!”
She looked thoughtful. “I don’t know…”
“I bet you’d make a lot of money!”
“I don’t need money,” she said. “But I do like making cookies…”
I gave her a hug. “Just think about it,” I said.
She nodded. “I will. Now scoot, I’m making dinner.”
I scooted.
I guess today wasn’t all that eventful. But maybe it planted the seeds for eventful stuff in the future. Hey, at least it’s not drama.
Time for bed!