Growing Pains

There is that person in life who will say, “Hey, remember the other day when I told you about that friend of mine I’ve never mentioned before? What? You don’t remember their name? But I said it. Once. How can you not remember?”

Right? And they’re offended?

I HATE that. I do my best NOT to be that person. So I might say something like, “Remember the other day when I told you about my friend Gary… my friend from college with the dog that can play the bassoon. Right, THAT Gary! Anyway…”

Lately I’ve noticed Nola (13) will share a story and take it personally if I’m unable to recall every minute detail the next day. It seemed like a weird glitch, but I decided to pass on mentioning anything because I figured it was just a phase, a maturity thing where she’ll eventually add a more convivial level of sophistication and thoughtfulness to her conversational repartee. By the time she’s a high school sophomore maybe? But then I thought, hmmm, what if it gets worse and locks in and she becomes THAT person — so I mentioned it. Nola was, of course, displeased to be called out in a non-flattering way — which is indeed a very rare occurrence — but we moved on with a lesson shared/learned.

Or so I thought.

A few days ago Nola told us about a moment in class when she was asked about the 5 boroughs of New York. She named them all…