"It's Deja Vu All Over Again"

Yogi Berra is famous because he's a Hall of Fame baseball player, but also due to his uncanny way of saying things such as, "It's Deja Vu All Over Again, and "if you come to a fork in the road, take it."  I was reminded of the first quote this weekend when we traveled to Columbus, Georgia to watch our youngest child, Marisa, at a special Circle K event. (Circle K, which was founded in 1936, is an international collegiate service organization that is a leadership program of Kiwanis International that promotes service, leadership and fellowship and has over 13,000 members)

Marisa was finishing her term as Governor of Circle K for the State of Georgia, which she was elected to almost a year ago.  We expected to watch her give a farewell speech, see a few awards given out, and eat a couple meals with her and the group.  We got a lot more than that. 

It was impossible not to flash back almost four years ago when weeks before she graduated high school, there was an awards night.  We knew she had already received some awards/scholarships, but we were not prepared for what happened that night.  Marisa had applied for over thirty different scholarships and wound up winning around half of them.  Hearing her name announced over and over left us proud and speechless after such an accomplishment. My favorite scholarship that she won was the one she actually lost.  Weeks after losing it, she was awrded it when the winner decided not to attend Georgia Tech where Marisa was going to school.

Marisa gave a great speech this morning  and showed natural ability in front of a crowd.  She was not fazed by a slip of the tongue or losing her place, but acted like a professional.  Having both given presentations in the past, my wife and I were impressed by her speaking ability, but surprised when she received five different awards, including acceptance in the prestigious Kiwanis Hall of Fame.

Many of the adults representing Circle K and Kiwanis came over to us and praised Marisa which certainly made us proud.  However, the most telling comment came as we were leaving the hotel and one of her fellow members of Circle K yelled over to us, "thanks for having such a great daughter."

We are fortunate to have three great kids, but this weekend Marisa showed us again how special she  is.  It truly was "deja vu all over again."