This winter my daughter has taught me a lot about how wonderfully strong she is--how good she is. For those that didn't realize, she was badly betrayed by one of her groups of friends. To the point where she was just heartbroken for a while. And very angry. They were even stalking and harassing her on the net. Eventually, the police were gotten involved. And it was for the best.

She was so hurt, and so beaten down. But it didn't last. She got right back up, eventually. In the span of only a couple of months. And she went on to utterly shine, stronger than ever before! I don't know what those harpies are up to. I don't care. But they lost out, not Gwen.

When she bounced back, it was with a lion's roar. She found her feet, came out fighting and her senior year has ended beautifully. Excellent grades, a wonderful boyfriend and tons of college prospects. She was even nominated for Prom Queen (though she didn't win, but that was okay).

Prom was tonight, and she was so beautiful that when Carl (her boyfriend) showed up, his eyes popped out of his head! And he is SUCH a gentleman! He danced with her all night long. Her third prom (she went to one as a sophomore too) was an absolute hit!

And the part that really hit me as wonderful was afterwards. When it was over and she was out of her stunning red gown and sitting having tea with me at 2 am in the morning, you know what she said to me when I told her how proud I was she'd come through everything so strong and wonderful and happy? After all the pain that awful pathetic girl caused, after all the betrayal Gwen suffered from that group of so-called-friends, after all the petty harassment they carried on for months after she was trying to move on and they would travel to every place on the web she hid and make horrible, horrible remarks--After all that, Gwen said, "Mom, I don't even think of that anymore. But since you brought it up, Rachel Morgan was just so jealous it was driving her to do evil things. I know that now. She's that unhappy with herself and I just won. I just had the best night of my life. I even had my first kiss. Nothing they did to me mattered in the end.".

And I am so proud of her. She's going to animation school this next year. She's following her dreams, building her life just the way she wants it, and those awful people are a mere speck in her past. And that's the way it should be. People who act that way aren't worth holding onto. And if it was me, I'd be angry, but she's reached that place where they don't even feature in her thoughts.

Whoot! My baby is all grown up and I made a cool person! Of all the art I've ever created, nothing holds a torch to the masterwork my children are.