Reaching for maturity

It's hard to believe enough years have passed that my youngest is graduating from HS.  She's a young senior, she won't be 18 til Dec but she's made her way thru middle school and high school with kids who are older than she (she started school one year earlier than her peers, she's supposed to be a junior).  

When we put her in kindergarten we did so because she was mentally and physically ready.  Thoughts of her being 15 when everyone else was 16 (and driving) didn't really enter our minds as concrete concepts.  We knew she'd face some things being younger but thought she could handle it as she seemed to be able to handle 6 year olds when she was 5.  And at 5 she was taller than most 7 year olds.  

We were right but there were times when I wondered if our decision was not quite as well thought out as I thought at the time.

The most evident time was when she was almost 15 and most of her friends were turning 16.  She became sassy and felt she had the same rights as those who were driving and having curfews later than she had.  She couldn't quite understand how even a year or two of maturity didn't apply to her.  That she was petulant and bratty was not apparent to her, although it was very apparent to us.

She's lucky (although I don't think she knows it yet) that she has friends that are less and more mature than she is.  The less mature allows her to be the more mature one who can help navigate waters she's already been in and the more mature allows her to learn some things a bit early.  

One of her friends (an ex-cheerleader) has been sexually active with her boyfriend for about 6 months.  Her friend is almost 18.  My daughter thinks she's stupid for  getting into something that is probably bigger than she is.  Smart girl.  Who needs the complexity of that kind of relationship when you are dealing with getting out of HS and going into college?

She has a good head on her shoulders.  I can see that she's fine with what others do but when it comes to HER, she realizes she's not willing to add more layers of stuff to deal with.  

That said, she still whines on occasion, wanting to do some things like staying out late with one of her friends that (imho) is less than honest in how she presents things.  Recently the daughter told me with some indignation that her friend needed to get her tonsils out, but her parents refused to pay for it.  Somehow the daughter is young enough to believe her friend instead of trying to understand how she is being manipulated.  

Hmmmm, I told the daughter, it's likely her parents don't have to pay out of pocket for a necessary surgery.  If the doc says it needs to be done there is no reason why she can't use the medical insurance that is provided by her parents.  Basically her story seemed designed to make my daughter feel sorry for her that her parents don't provide for her.  After I gave the daughter the likely facts she had to stop trying to convince me her parents were such ogres.  

But she is growing up and I'm proud of her.  I love my babygirl.