Front Porch: Life Through Mia’s Eyes

An Ant's View

In January, I visited a wonderful blog that I quite enjoy called Writer Dad and was surprised by finding the most amazing young woman. It happened that Mia, the daughter of the mastermind and author of Writer Dad, Sean, was guest posting that day. I was in for a treat!

At that post, she let us know that she was turning eight years old in January this year. Her writing engaged me immediately and as I traveled through her post, her joye de vivre was contagious, not to mention her interaction in the comments!

Here’s an excerpt from her post:

I love going to school. Reading is my favorite subject in the whole world. In fact, one time I read 10 chapter books in one day! I also really like writing and learning Spanish, but I don’t like math as much. I’m working hard to learn all my math facts so that math will be more fun!

(She even made up her own joke, which I thought quite funny—check out the comments in her post for a belly laugh.)

I sent her and her dad an email inviting her to join me on the Front Porch to chat with all of us. And, thankfully, she accepted with grace. (Thank you, Mia.)

I explained that the mission of the Front Porch series is to share people’s stories. It’s a place to share conversations had on front porches or in back yards, just sharing life and steeping ourselves in humanity.

She was all for it. (There’s that joye de vivre, again!)

So, she’s joining us here today. Welcome, Mia!

Are you ready?

Let’s go!

We’re easing into it, letting the words flow out gently like a bubbling brook, and I’m already enjoying every moment.

OK, Mia, one of the first things I normally do on the Front Porch is get comfy. What do you like to drink if you’re having friends over to your house? Milk? Hot chocolate? I used to love drinking cherry Kool-Aid. (And usually ended up with a red lip from the dye—not to mention a couple of cavities!) ha ha ha

“I like to drink icy water because water is good for me and because it is usually hot on my porch.”

Awesome! And that’s good for tennis and soccer players. I saw over at Writer Dad that you like to play both sports. Good for you!

I also noticed in your post over at Writer Dad that you are looking forward to getting a computer someday and you LOVE reading! What are your thoughts about all this talk about digital readers vs. reading real books? For example, I have a Kindle reader, but I also love to read REAL paper books. I don’t like to read very much using my computer (it kind of make my eyes hurt). Do you think you’ll read books on your computer or a digital reader more often than paper books someday? Or, even, that paper books will someday no longer exist?

“I still want them to have paper books in the future because I can read better on paper and my eyes won’t get tired. I do think the iPad looks neat though. My dad showed it to me on the computer.”

Exactly! I agree with your thoughts about paper books AND the iPad. Maybe you’ll be able to get an iPad someday—I know you just had a birthday, happy belated birthday! Now that you’re eight years old, what’s different about your life? Anything?

“Now that I’m eight years old I can read a lot better and a lot faster. I can also stay up later before I get really sleepy and I get bigger kisses from my parents!”

Believe it or not, I can actually remember when I was learning to read, and how lucky I felt that I could start to read things like cartoons in the newspaper with my dad or even the occasional menu at a restaurant—even though we really only went to McDonald’s back then. Ha ha ha And yeah, staying up later means a lot more time to have fun, read, and learn new things during the day! Yippee!

I can tell from your post and comments that you’re quite a funny chicka, Mia. You even created your own joke—that’s really great (Tiramisu! ha ha ha). Is there a time you can think of that was really, really funny. You know, the kind of story that was so funny you couldn’t stop laughing?

“When me and my friend Brittany were taking pictures I was sitting on a tree and I said, ‘There are ants on my butt!’”

Ha ha ha, did Brittany start laughing and did she make the photos blurry from laughing too much? Ha ha ha, that’s funny, Mia!

“No, Brittany wasn’t laughing too much. It was mostly just me and my brother (he’s kinda loco!).”

I can remember being fascinated by ants when I was younger, actually. I even remember watching an ant crawl on a blade of grass wondering how it could possibly NOT feel lost all the time. You know? How would she find her way back home? But they all do.

“I had a dream one time when I was only as tiny as an ant and everything was really giant. It was kind of cool and kind of crazy.”

Yeah, dreams can be pretty crazy; you hit the nail on the head! Just remember that dreams can sometimes make for great stories. I’ve written a couple of stories based on my dreams, and that’s why I keep a notebook by my bed, just in case I get an idea for a story from my dreams—that way I can write it down as soon as I wake up.

Well, lovely lady, thanks for taking time to hang out with me and the amazing people who read Jane Be Nimble. You are awesome!

I’ll be watching for more of your posts over at Writer Dad!

Mia, please feel free to chime in at the comments if you have time, and to everyone who stops by please leave a comment for Mia or myself if you’d like. Put up your feet and let’s hang out on the Front Porch!

Create a great day!

[Ant's View photo courtesy of The Contented]

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Previous Front Porch Posts:
Front Porch: The Series
Front Porch: Not A Typical Day In The Park (With Tim Piotrowski)
Front Porch: Pearl’s Wisdom (A conversation with Lori’s first pet)
Front Porch: An F22 Jet and a Costa Rican Chica (With Lisis Blackston)
Front Porch: George and the Power of the Human Spirit (With George Angus)
Front Porch: Of Bands, Explosions, and Cattle Auctions—Laughter (With Jay Schryer)
Front Porch: Brave, Bold Tess (With Tess Marshall)
Front Porch: Cardboard Sleds, Machu Picchu, and Sami May
Front Porch: Only in Lance World with Lance Ekum

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