Hello to all other newbies as well!
Hippievanlady--My mother was very similar. I was tap dancing at age 4 (though you're supposed to be 5 to start, they thought I had enough "talent" to begin early--what tap talent do you have at 4?!), I was soloist in choirs beginning in fifth grade, and if I brought home a test from school with a grade of 95 that made me extremely happy, she would repeatedly ask me why it wasn't a 100 and what I could have done to do better. As I got older, I became less interested in pleasing her, and I think it was the best decision of my life to go to college over 300 miles away from her. By the time I was done with high school, though, she knew she wasn't my first priority anymore. All my life I had been "the mature one," "the smart one," "the grown-up one," but then I started hanging out with a slightly different crowd in mid-high school, and I discovered that I could be "the fun one!" That's when dear mother finally realized that she took a back seat...
futurediva--size 14 pants?! I hope I will someday fit into those--I'm in your boat...probably haven't been in that size since 5th or 6th grade!
