Happy birthday!
Yes, my daughter turns 14 today, 5 days after her brother’s birthday and six years behind. Indeed, it was all well-planned so that I could save money by holding one birthday party for two of them, wasn’t it? Today she will have dinner with her friend and then go skating. And I will be her loving driver.

For some years, I have got into the habit of writing a long letter of appreciation to her. I always think writing will last much longer than any presents that I can give. That was before I have this blog.

When I first had my daughter, I thought, “Gee, the complementary part of the old saying ‘Like father, like son’ should be ‘Like mother, like daughter.’” If that was the case, I would be a happy mom. In fact, I am a happy mom no matter what. Three years later, I bumped into a book We Are Our Mothers’ Daughters by Cokie Roberts. Here again comes the new version of an old saying, “Great women think alike.”

As the year turns, I often find myself wondering, “Are you sure this is your daughter?” Last week, we had a true color exercise at work. There are four colors, orange, gold, blue, and green. Each of them is associated with one of the four types of personality. My daughter and I don’t even belong to the same color group, not even near to each other.

Next I explained to her the main difference between introvert and extrovert people lies in where you get your energy and find your happiness. Introvert people find it from within while extrovert from without. At this point, we finally found something alike between us.

She asked me if I ever felt depressed. This reminded me of my graduate school years. After I handed in all the term papers and finished all the exams. I suddenly found myself having nothing to do. And that was the moment when I felt rather low in spirits or depressed. So I told her, “It is when I found myself going about the life without any goal or pursuit that I feel depressed.” She said she felt the same way. “I must have a goal to live on,” said she. Finally and truely, like mother, like daughter.

Similar or different, we have been always very close to each other. I find no word that can adequately describe how grateful and blessed I am for having a wonderful daughter like her.
Happy birthday!

P.S. An anecdote on the date of her birth. Her due date should be April first. Since I chose to have her by c-section, I said, “Let’s not do it on Fool’s Day. And we cannot wait after the due date as she seems so anxious to come out now. Date 3/27 sounds a lucky date to me because 3 and 27 are so happily double-related as in 3 x 9 = 27 and 3 to the third power = 27.” The fun started even before her big date.