981Kate emailed in her SOTM, and wrote this in her email: “I've always been the type of person who was in a hurry to grow up (planning college at age ten and such). But then in high school I had a teacher whom I was particularly close to.

"She told me that she didn't think my problem was that I wasn't growing up fast enough or well enough, but that really, I "needed to grow down a little." It took me a few years to get what she meant. The problem isn't that we don't grow up fast enough or well enough, it's that we do.

"And often we lose the good things about being little in the process. I contemplated smiling mischeviously in the picture, as that what the advice has led to- childlike enthusiasm and being amused at most everything. But I thought the confused look fit the quote a bit better, as I had no idea what she meant when she said it first-- I was already shorter than everyone in my class...

(Oh! And the picture is taken in my room at University of Oregon in Eugene, OR. Not one of the colleges I had planned on attending when I was ten, but I'm quite happy here anyhow.) I hope that isn't too long of a description. Thank you!”