It’s 6 p.m. You get a phone call from the beach police station. Your daughter has been arrested and detained for possession of illegal substances. Your worst nightmare has occurred. Her record squandered and her chances of getting into a decent college hindered by the unforeseeable blemish all because you allowed her to go to the beach with her friends. But you’re not a clairvoyant. You thought she was smart enough to know right from wrong. You didn’t think she would be stupid enough to attempt to swim in six foot water with the high tide. You thought she would be smart enough. You didn’t know she was going to drown. You thought she would be smart enough. You didn’t know that there was an increased prevalence of sharks. No one thought Jaws would come to life. If Hamilton survived the shark attack, why didn’t your daughter. Why was the lifeguard not paying more attention. You thought she’d be smart enough. You did not know her friends were speeding on the highway. It was a mistake that the driver was texting for one little second. No one thought they would crash into a phone pole. You thought she’d be smart enough…

But she was smart enough. When asked if she would like a drink or when handed a snack from a friend or stranger she politely declined as she brought her own snacks for she was not going to take the chance. She saw her friends going deeper and deeper into the water, but she said no. Standing in the waist-height water was just right for her. Her hair would be ruined if she went any deeper anyways and we all know the girl would not want to redo her hair later. The waves got higher, so she got out of the water for she did not want to be swallowed by the unknown. What’s that in the water? “Maybe we should go look.” She stayed ashore for seeing the foreign object from afar was enough for her. Getting gobbled by a shark was not on the agenda, for she had to get back home to study for the weeks tests to come. “We are so late meeting up with other friends, I’m speeding up.” Oh, wait? She does not pick stupid friends, for hers would never risk their lives or others simply for a rush of epinephrine through their systems or because it would be fun. Her friends do not play life and death. “Check my phone for me,” they won’t dare look at it while driving. It just won’t happen. The road is unpredictable as it is, so peeking at a notification would not be a wise choice. Maybe they aren’t wizened, maybe they don’t possess that crystallized intelligence, and maybe they have immature frontal lobes. What do they have? Fluid intelligence, the ability to take a problem and solve it at a moment's notice, common sense, doing the smart thing while having fun at the same time, and intelligence in general, because let’s face it, she is not friends with the incompetent. These millennials, they will never learn unless they are given a trial and error. Error is possible, and some cannot be taken back, but from those errors we learn right from wrong. So, it’s 6 p.m. You didn’t get a call from the police and instead are shouting at your daughter to come downstairs for dinner. Because she made it home safely. She was able to enjoy spending time with her friends, the right and fun way, and is able to not enjoy the company of her family and even tell you the details about her day. All because you raised her...to be smart enough.