Olympic Hopeful?

She wears a pink skirt, pink Mary Jane shoes, and a shirt with pink flowers emblazoned from sleeve to sleeve.

“I’m taking gymnastics now!” She tells me with a huge smile from ear to ear. “Guess what I’m going to be when I grow up…”

When kids ask me to guess, I don’t want to spoil it, so I often postulate way off base. This allows them to smile and reveal their dreams with pride.

I look at her and think about her kind manner, sweet smile, and pink clothes and something flashes through my mind. Olympic Gold.

This past summer, the U.S. Women’s Gymnastic Team took the Olympic Gold Medal. A big deal considering this hasn’t happened since 1996. The team also won two individual Gold (one for the All-Around), one Silver, and one Bronze Medal. And if you missed any TV coverage, you can walk down the cereal aisle at your local grocery store and see their faces on what seems like almost every box (except those no-name generic toasty O’s…why is that?). And in one record breaking hot summer, a beacon of hope and possibility spreads to little girls all over the U.S. who dream of being gymnasts.

So as she begins to tell me, I anticipate her answer “Olympic Gymnast” or I’ll accept just “Gymnast.”
She slowly looks around, motions for me to lean close and whispers in my ear.
What I hear is “Spy.”
My smile freezes as my eyebrows furl a little… “A what?” I ask.
“I want to be a spy. Gymnastics will help me learn the moves I need to be a good spy.”

A spy, did she say she wants to be a spy? Part of me is shocked, part amazed, part overjoyed…but the biggest part ashamed. Come on, what was I thinking? Pink skirt, pink shoes, and a pink flowered shirt does not always a gymnast make.

I step back and take a new look at her. She’s sweet, sneaky, soon to be stealthy, and will make a great spy! I just hope she doesn’t tell too many people.