My daughter Kelly is a cautious person. She needs to warm up to situations, and is 1 to try new things. When with close friends, she becomes a 2 who laughs loudly and chants, “Girls rule, boys drool.” But when that 3 zone is not around her, she is shy and 4 . This has been challenging for me 5 . “Shy” is not a word that I think has ever been used to 6 me. But this has been a year of 7 for my girl that has filled her with a new sense of 8 . This year she moved to lap lane in swimming where she was preparing for a swim team. This year she learned to ride a bike without training wheels. And this year she 9 her first kids’ triathlon ( 三项全能 ). On Saturday, with a thunderstorm coming soon and my son’s birthday party later in the day, we all went out in the dark of the morning for Kelly to 10 her first triathlon. We practiced transitions from swim to 11 to run with her, we got all the equipment she'd need, and we kept talking about the 12 . But as we waited the two hours for the older kids to finish before her 13 , she 14 my leg a little harder and told me she loved me a few too many times. She was nervous but trying to keep calm. And then it was her time to go. From the second she jumped into the water, my heart 15 quickly. My daughter 16 into the most confident human being I had ever seen. She dominated that swim, crushed that bike ride and ran to the 17 with the biggest smile on her face. I can honestly say that I never felt so 18 of someone in my entire life. It wasn’t because she did a sport or anything like that. It was because she was afraid of something and 19 that fear with confidence and a fire I hadn't seen before. All day I would find myself just looking over at her and smiling. She might be wearing the finalist medal but I felt like I 20 that day. I won the chance to see my girl shine.