Agency

Oh that wonderful thing. Free agency!!! Yes, we fought for it in the war in heaven, we cling to its concept here in this mortal existence, but the truth is we really like it when everyone around us uses it the way we want them to.

On Wednesday night we had a meeting with the host teachers of Emily's exchange trip to Germany in May. They had to cover several topics, but one of those is that the legal age in Germany to drink beer is 16, and 18 for anything stronger. There will be several 18 year old boys on the trip, and most of the kids will be over 16 before they head out.  The teacher handed out several permission and release slips, exonerating him, his heirs, estate, the school, and anyone else associated with the trip for anything that might go wrong.  He then informed us that before he would accept the release/permission slips back, the parents were required to write our position on our children drinking while they were in Germany.

My first instinct was of course Emily won't drink in Germany...have you met her? My second was that I would write in no uncertain terms that alcohol was not acceptable for my child...ever!  Scott however, reminded me that our daughter was soon to graduate from high school, and it was time to let her exercise a little of what we had already been teaching her.  So, the bottom of Emily's permission slip will read as follows:

"We believe that Emily is fully capable of deciding for herself about the consumption of alcoholic beverages while on her trip to Germany. She has our full support."