Dear Mini-Lori,
Mini-Lori for Vice President
You’re finally in the 6th grade. You’ll run for Vice President of your school, which is surprising, considering how much you hate very public activities. Running for President is Jimmy, one of your classmates. He’s one of the smart, Caucasian kids in your class. You’ll assume you can use his name in your campaign by making signs that saying something to the effect of “Vote for the Winning Team: Jimmy for President, Mini-Lori for Vice President, and Debbie for Treasurer.” Of course, the three of you win. Elections at Capitol School was a lot like Charlie Brown.
Mixed Doubles
You and Mark are still playing tennis in the summer time. Mother begins taking the two of you to Seattle in the summer to buy clothes for school. On the first part of your stay, you stay at the Roosevelt Hotel in downtown Seattle, one block from Frederick and Nelson and The Bon. On the second part of the trip, you stay at the Doubletree Hotel at the Southcenter mall. Mother buys you the coolest clothes for school, basketball, and tennis.
Perks of being a Good Kid
You learn that being a good kid, who stays out of trouble, has its benefits. Has your mother conditioned you to stay out of trouble by rewarding you with cool clothes and music? Probably not. She loves showering you with things because she knows you work hard in sports. You get stuff like new athletic shoes for sports, 45s, and albums because you love sports and music. Do you have special brands? Yes, you only wear Adidas tennis shoes. You buy Wilson and Spalding tennis rackets and only use Wilson tennis balls.
Your favorite 45s in 6th grade are “Ku Fu Fighting” by Carl Douglas and “Please Mr. Postman” by the Carpenters. Mother lets you use her Alaska Music charge account to charge your albums and 45s by yourself. Now if only you could apply your passion for music to your academics. “Philadelphia Freedom” by Elton John is also a favorite because Elton John is writing about your idol, Billie Jean King. You look like a dope because you have your BJK hairstyle, but straight hair so it looks nothing like BJK’s! At least you got rid of the long ponytails from 4th and 5th grade. Actually, you look more like Rosie Casals than BJK. Is it because you now have a Rosie Casals racket by Spalding?
Brother’s Experience in Race Issues
Meanwhile, your older brother, Mark, is killing time in high school. Mark’s a senior in high school. He’ll graduate and leave you to go to a community college in California. Years later, you’ll learn that prejudice and discrimination existed in high school for your brother. You’ll learn that one of Mark’s best friends is one of the best basketball players in his class. But his friend won’t make the boys basketball team because he’s Alaska Native. You’ll also learn years later that your experience in high school is dramatically different from your brother’s. He’s seen prejudice and discrimination against Alaska Natives while you remain unscathed by it.
Action Items
- Don’t assume. One of your bad habits as an adult will be making assumptions. This trait will manifest in your work deliverables and other aspects of your life. Making assumptions is something that one of your future VPs will tell you not to do in your work. For example, you’ll make assumptions rather than gather requirements when you write key documents like business case analyses, marketing plans, other deliverables.
- Ask for permission. You should have asked Jimmy Adams if it was okay to advertise that you two were on the winning team. What if he didn’t want you draft off his campaign? In the future, you’ll hear business advice that you recommend you should take action first, then apology later. This will not be your style, so learn how to ask for permission, if you need to, before taking a public action.
- Learn about credit and money management. Learn at an early age that credit is good and necessary. But it will take you years to realize that you always need to have at least 8 months of savings in case a recession hits or some other unfortunate event. You’ll have more options when you feel confident about your financial situation. You won’t be attached to a job because have the option to quit to find a better job if you have savings. And thank your Mother again for being so wonderful to you as a kid. She indulged you because you were such a good kid, although she really should have made you eat more exotic foods to expand your tastes. As a kid, you’re a finicky eater that you will never grow out of. You don’t even like Japanese or Alaska Native food. What are you eating in the 6th grade? Meat and potatoes…of course.
- Understand your brother’s life experiences. When you grow up, ask your brother about how he and his friends were treated in high school. Hopefully, this will prevent you going to your dark side near the end of your 7th grade year. Because of the age difference, Mark’s life experiences are very different from yours. He’s your father’s son while you’re your mother’s daughter. Mark and your father share numerous personality traits and hardships. You, on the hand, do not share these things with your father. Is it because Mark looked more Tlingit and you more Japanese? Or is it because Mark’s formative years were with your father while solely your mother formed your formative years? You won’t know until you talk with Mark. Also, give Mark another hug since he’s still feeling bad about that red toboggan accident.
