Meeting Mila :: Children Personal Narrative Friendship Essays

Meeting Mila Children used to annoy me. They cried. They pooped. They cried some more. They yelled obvious questions at the movies, screamed constantly in the grocery store, and seemed to have an affinity for yelling out facts that the general public did not need to know (such as when in a department store, Bobby informs the sales clerk, "MOMMY SAYS MY BROTHER BILLY WAS AN ACCIDENT!") Furthermore, I had no idea how to deal with children. I was the youngest sibling in my family, and unlike most girls my age, I had never been a babysitter. All of that would change, however, when I met Mila. She would show me just how intelligent, honest, and wonderful children can be. It was around Valentine's Day when I met a strange and interesting young man named Jack. He was a writer, chain smoker, and lover of all cartoons -- especially those involving giant fighting robots. I was going to Topeka West High School, he was a freshman at Washburn University and despite our age difference, we clicked. He told me when we first met that he had a little girl, that her name was Mila, and that she was two years old. I like to think that the fact he had a child didn't freak me out, but it did. As a sixteen year old, I was too young to have to deal with a kid. Also, I was convinced that I didn't have the time or patience to spend time with both Jack and his daughter. Mila had a squinty-eyed smile that could lighten up my foulest mood. Her eyes were like a prized Husky's, a beautiful, piercing ice blue--just like her father's. Her hair was so blond, it was white. It amazed me (and still does) that so much beauty could be bundled into such a small package. I noticed right away that she also had his ears--they stuck out from the sides of her head just like his, but hers were more feminine, with earrings adorning her tiny lobes. At first, she was shy around me. (Of course, back then, she hadn't mastered opening doors yet, and oh, how that's changed!) But over the weekends she spent at Jack's house, I became "Her Sara." She started becoming more comfortable around me when I began driving Jack to Lawrence to pick her up and then driving back with her in tow.