People tell me that I am precocious for a 11yr old. They say I see things that most kids don't. I think I do. In fact, I see things that most adults don't. I just do.  I don't know if I am precocious. I just do.

I am gifted with great parents.  They tell me everything.  Nothing is too hard for me to understand.  They did this even when I was younger. I remember being at a park feeding birds. Watching them fly, I had asked her: "Mummy, why can't I fly like birds?" And she had explained the principle of gravity and how birds had strong pectoral muscles and wings shaped for flying, and how we had evolved from apes which were land dwelling animals. I hadn't understood all of that then, but as I got older, I did.  My parents never told me I was too young to understand something they did.

Once in a while, more so lately, she would tell me she didn't know, and that she'd find out and let me know. She always would. Sometimes she'd ask people and tell me, and sometimes we would go on the Web and read together.  Like the time I asked her how a cell phone worked.

Well, last night was different.  She just didn't know and she wouldn't tell me she'd find out.  "Can't you find out for me, Mom?"

"I can't honey, honestly. There are questions for which there are no answers, and this is one of them."  And I studied her trying to gauge if she was upset at me.  Didn't look like she was.

"Can we ask Dad?"

"Sure, honey, why don't you, tomorrow morning, OK?"

The next day, I did ask Dad, and he had the same thoughtful expression that Mom had: "You know, sweetie, that's a great question.  Maybe you should ask the question to everyone you know.  Even if they don't know the answer, maybe it'll get them thinking."  So, that's why I am writing this down for all of you to answer (or to get that thoughtful look on your face).

It all started a week back. I had a homework paper to write.  I love writing, and so I would usually finish these assignments long before they were due.  This one, however, was different. It was on "Nutrition, and why it was important to us".  I quickly wrote a parody - a story about a girl who always ate what was good for her, and ended up in a lunatic asylum. I had a smirk on my face when I finished, but when Mom saw it, she said I had to redo it. I was aghast. "But, why? It presents an opposing viewpoint", I said.

Mom smiled at me. "Katya, you know better what an opposing viewpoint is. Save this one for your English class."  She was right, I was just making a fuss. She continued "Do you want me to help you find some good web sites on nutrition?" I told her that Sarah and I could do that, when she came over.  Sarah is my cousin - she is 13.

Well, Sarah came on a Sunday, and the homework was the furthest thing on my mind for most of the day.  We were playing all kinds of games - some cool video games, but also some made-up games, where we'd make up the rules as we went along.  Then suddenly, in the afternoon, it hit me - I had to turn in my homework the next day. "Why, oh why, do I have to write something exactly like my teacher wanted? Why couldn't I write it my own way?"  The injustice of this assignment really bothered me.  What could I do to get out of it?  Maybe I could get Sarah to do it for me - at least I could try. She, like me, was a really good writer - at least, that's what people said. And, she was really into eating good food, so maybe she would enjoy writing it.  So, I asked her.

"Are you crazy?" she responded. "Why? Why should I do your homework. Besides it isn't right."

I considered. She was right. "But, how about we make a bet, like, and if you win, I'll do your homework, and if I win, you do mine."

She pondered. "Well, let's see - I've already done my homework for tomorrow, but I have one due Wednesday - a writing assignment. So, if I win, you'll not only have to do your own homework, you'll have to do mine as well - you sure, you're up for that?"

"Yup" I responded happily. I'll just have to make sure I win, I told myself.

We decided that we'd play a game that we hadn't played before. Whoever won the game won the bet.  So, we went online, and found some cool game sites.  But, we had already played most of the board games like chess and Go, so we decided to try playing my brother's snowboarding game.

I had watched him play, but I had never played it myself.  I guess I had an advantage, but Sarah was okay with that. She had actually been snowboarding, for real, on snow, so she felt she had the advantage.  We had to come down a slope on our snowboard, and the first one down was the winner.  There were some cliffs we had to avoid. And we had to slow down around some corners or we'd get slammed into steep rocky hillsides.  I wanted to win so badly.  I figured I had nothing to lose. No homework could be as bad as mine.  We did a trial run, and I got the feel for the controls. Sarah tried to go down as fast as she could, and she easily beat me.  This is good, I thought to myself, maybe she'll be too confident.

We started the game, and I concentrated really hard and surprised her with my dexterity. We were going head to head, and I sensed that Sarah was getting worried. Then, she started going really fast and pulled ahead of me.  I thought she was going too fast, and sure enough, on a sharp turn she lost control and crashed into the hillside.  I won by default!  I was ecstatic - I had gotten out of doing my crummy homework.  Sarah was bummed, but she took it like a sport.  She didn't mind doing the essay, she said, and she had written something like that a few months back. She wrote a really good essay, and she didn't have to look up many references, either.

We had dinner, and she left after dinner.  I was helping my parents put away the dishes, when my mom asked me about the homework. I told her that it was done. She told me she'd like to see it. I thought to myself briefly - "Should I tell her?" But I figured, I had won the bet fair and square, so it should be okay. Before I went to bed, I gave her the printed copy of the essay.

I was in my bed, reading, when there was a light knock on the door, and Mom came in.  "Oh, oh", I thought to myself.  She had the essay in her hand, and she plopped it on the bed.  She looked at me. "Did you write this, Katya?"

"No Mom, Sarah did. We had a bet, and she lost, so she had to write it.  If I had lost, I would have done her homework."

Mom looked at me steadily. "It has your name underneath the title. Like you wrote it. Which means you'll get the credit for it.  Isn't that cheating, Katya?"

I didn't know what to say. "Well, I don't really care about the credit, I just wanted the homework done."

My mom responded: "Let's say Mrs. Patel liked your essay. So much so, that she reads a part of it aloud in class and tells all the students how good it is.  Wouldn't that make you feel guilty, for getting credit for doing something you didn't do".

She had a point - I hadn't thought through it that much. "You're right, Mom. I am sorry. I won't hand it in.  I guess I'll have to lose the points for this homework, huh?"  Mom just looked at me smiling.  I ended up going to bed much later - after putting my pride aside and struggling through that essay.

That was last weekend.  Last night, after dinner, my parents and I were sitting in the family room.  My brother was doing a sleep-over at his friend's house, and so it was just the three of us.  I was flipping through my dad's magazine - it had articles on the business world, and how one company was outdoing another, etc.  I wasn't really interested, but I didn't have anything else to do.

My mom, suddenly exclaimed that she had forgotten about a program she wanted to watch on TV.  She turned it on, and tried to find her channel, but the program was apparently substituted.  The President was giving his annual "State of the Union" address.  Dad perked up, and since my Mom was half interested as well, both of them started to watch.  Since I had flipped through the entire magazine, I started to watch as well. I had never seen the President give a speech, and he seemed very eloquent.  Furthermore, he didn't even forget a single line! That was really astonishing to me - it was a long speech, and never once did he forget his lines.  And his speech was full of numbers.  How did he remember all of that?  He must have a phenomenal memory, I thought.  After he finished, another man got up to speak.  He seemed to be attacking what the President said, and later on, I learnt that he was a Senator from the opposing party.  What was surprising to me was that he too, had a phenomenal memory, never once forgetting any line, never consulting any paper and never at a loss for words.

After the program was over, Mom turned off the TV, and they started discussing the speech. Then the phone rang, and Dad got up to answer it. I turned to my Mom and asked her if all politicians had  a good memory.  She looked at me surprised.  I told her what I had observed, that none of them had forgotten their lines.  She looked at me amusedly, and said: "That's a good observation, Katya, but they just seem like they're remembering everything.  In reality, they use a tele-prompter."  And she explained to me what that was.  "So, no, politicians don't need to have a better memory than any of us," she concluded.  She, then picked up a magazine which she started flipping through.

I thought about this. "They do need to write good speeches, though, huh, Mom?"

Mom was still flipping pages. "Well, sometimes, yes. Mostly they have speech writers".

"How about the President?"

"Oh, the President. Well, he probably had a speech writer and some staff to help him out".

I was shocked. I blurted out "You mean he didn't even write his own speech".

Mom looked up, surprised. "No."

"But, Mom, doesn't the President get credit for the State of the Union Address? Nobody gives credit to the speech writer and the staff - all of us including you talk about the speech like the President made it.  How can that be right?"  Mom just looked at me. And that's when she said what she did.