This weekend, my wife confronted Sloan with some cold hard facts and a conclusion. She didn’t sugarcoat it nor dumb it down. In Sidney’s straight-forward approach, this is what she told our daughter:

Sloan, you play chess…

You are obsessed with Hamilton…

AND you collect ducks…

You are a DORK!

To our daughter’s credit, she didn’t bat an eye. She wasn’t caught off guard nor did she take any offense. In fact, she took my wife’s assessment as a badge of honor. Yes, Sloan embraced her inner-dorkiness.

I have written at length about Sloan’s affinity for chess and her fandom for Hamilton. However, I haven’t elaborated to the same extent about her love of ducks.

Sloan holding one of the ducks she found on Freedom of the Seas.

This final characteristic of Sloan’s dorkdom was spurned a year ago when we went on our cruise. She was drawn into the duck-hiding subculture of cruise ships and spent considerable energy trying to find the toy waterfowl while we were on-board.

Another photo of Sloan holding toy ducks she found on the cruise.

Since that experience, she has been all about the ducks. For whatever reason they appeal to her and she has started to amass quite the collection. Simply take a look at her night stand to get a quick idea about the value she places on these tiny toys.

A look at Sloan’s night stand….it is cluttered with ducks.

Now I won’t go as far as to say my daughter is a dork. Eccentric? Sure. But no matter how Sid and I decide to describe Sloan, one thing is non-debatable: I sure love her. Don’t Blink.