I have a confession to make — I’m not a very confident person. I am often too hard on myself and I am easily prone to pessimistic thoughts. I suspect, however, that people who know me in person, but don’t know me really well, wouldn’t necessarily guess that about me. But, really — that’s neither here nor there.
I talked to Eric on the phone earlier, and he said that Molly (age 2 1/2) was very cute. I turned to her and said, “Daddy says you’re cute!”
“Yeah,” she answered with a look about her of — “Why yes, I am cute. Thanks for noticing.”
So…it begs to be asked — Why must we lose this self-confidence we once felt???
You tell a preschool girl that she is pretty, and you aren’t surprised when she says, “I know.”
It is not uncommon to tell a child that he is smart and to get an answer back about how he is sure that he is the smartest kid in his class.
When you venture to ask a five year old girl what she wants to be when she grows up, you might receive an answer that she plans to be a princess. Oh, and when she is on vacation from being a princess, she will also be a teacher and a doctor. She says it with such enthusiasm that you believe for a moment that she really might do all of those things, or, at the very least, you want to believe it.
For young children, the world is one huge adventure, full of potential.
It’s such a shame that we all lose that. We lose that feeling of being special…of being able to do anything. Why do we learn to be so critical of ourselves? Why is it that we get to a point where blowing bubbles outside on a Saturday afternoon isn’t quite so magical?
I really wish I had answers to these kinds of things, but, of course, I don’t. But, I can say that I have been trying hard over the past six weeks or so to embrace more about who I am.
I have tried to take more time to appreciate what I have, and less time to seek out adding more things to my life and home. I have tried to take cues from my children and watch for those magical moments that I miss now because I don’t have a child’s eyes. I can’t say that the past six weeks have been perfect, and that I haven’t had times of feeling bad or not worthy or like a huge loser, but I find those times have happened a lot less over these past six weeks. This is a journey that I am going to try to continue on, even if I don’t end up as Her Royal Highness Princess Dr. Teacher Angie, I still think it’s worth the effort.
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