You're The Prize

Even though I tend to focus on my young male cousins, I have young female cousins and nieces too.
The most important lesson I try to teach them is that THEY are the prize - not some simple azz kid just trying to get some panties.

My niece Bianca says, "Bye John." as she gives me a hug.
Me - "Get out back out (of her car) and stand up".
Puzzled, she obliges.
"Close your legs", I say.
She is still puzzled.
"Keep them that way.", I say.
Now she's embarrassed but gets the message.
Me - "Who's the prize?"
"I am", she whispers.
"WHO?", I ask.
"I AM!", she says.
"Right.", I reply.
Then she's off.
This is the message that we need to teach our daughters.

One of my favorite young cousins is a young lady who I call The Monkey.
Why?
Because she is beautiful.
She was her high school's Homecoming Queen, starting (all star) guard on the basketball team, head cheerleader and the Salutatorian (Okay, she could have been Valedictorian but she was kind of busy) - as well as doing volunteer work at the hospital which her mom worked as an Rn.

Even though her family started in the projects of Lake Charles, Louisiana - her (single parent) mother became a nurse, her sister became an engineer (I forget which discipline) and she also became an Rn..

But while she was in college, she had a sort of Rhianna incident.
Her boyfriend hit her and pushed her sister during an outing to their local mall.
One of her hot-headed uncles and I decided to grab some "negotiators" and have a discussion with the kid.
When we arrived, she begged us to let it go.
We ended up having a regular discussion with the kid, but he understood what we meant when he saw our hands full of chrome.
She ended up breaking up with the kid.

But I had to ask her... "Who's the prize?".
"I AM" she replied.