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Grand Wisdom

As a child, I dreaded the idea of visiting my grandmother. I didn't have any specific grievances with her; I just wanted to be where my things were. When I was with my grandmother, I had three options: I could watch the news, draw a picture, or learn to bake. The only problem was that I didn't care about world events, I was never a good artist, and I was better at eating than at cooking. Given my childhood interests - or lack thereof - I was much happier playing with my friends or getting lost in the vast world of the Super Mario Brothers. Since my grandmother was not too big on Barbie and she thought that Mario was a boy from school, we didn't really have much in common.

When my technical childhood ended and I moved into my adolescent years, I had even less reasons to visit my grandmother. At that time, I wanted to do teenager things. Mainly, I wanted to gossip with my friends and check out the totally cute boys who loitered the mall with their pants around their kneecaps. Since my grandmother wasn't interested in who wore what to school and I could only bring up a boy if I planned to marry him, we were again left with little in common.

Finally, my teenage years ended and I officially became one of the old people that I was too cool to associate with when I was a child. When I reached my ancient 20s, I had the smartest realization that I had ever had up until that point. In all my years of playing video games, hanging out with my friends, and checking out the grungy boys, I managed to learn absolutely nothing. I wanted to eat, but I didn't know how to cook. I wanted to dress properly, but I didn't know how to pick out clothes that didn't come out of the juniors section. I wanted to learn how to make something of myself, but I didn't even know where to begin. Clearly, I needed help. And wouldn't you know it, but the person who finally guided me in the right direction was my grandmother who I used to think knew even less than I did.

After I made my way past my childhood ignorance, I realized that my grandmother had all of the answers all along. She might not have been too clear on figures like Mario and Luigi, but she knew all about figures like Chanel and Gucci. She did not know much about boys who used belts to keep their pants from completely falling off, but she did know something about the kind of men who wear belts because it's the proper thing to do. She may not have known about every personal experience that any of my friends ever had,

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