"WATCH THIS!"

WATCH THIS!

Those famous words of many children (and adults) as they conjure up some fantastical, imaginative, exploratory adventure that they want us to witness firsthand; in the case of our kids, it's like watching the gene pool overflow, in the case of  adults it's likely to make us happy we are not FROM the same gene pool!! (ha) I wasn't really sure what to blog about tonight, but since I had the feeling that my Monday-Wednesday-Friday blog promise had recently been broken a time or two due to "busy" kicking my life in the butt, I could not leave you without a dose of "Shells" tonight.

*WARNING* 

My brain is fried... it's been a long, yet very productive day and I can barely keep my eyes open! So excuse any grammatical errors that I may have missed.

I have to give my good friend and client Ani a big applause (yet again) for sending me the email which inspired this blog post, because when I opened her email I laughed out loud...saying "WOW! That is so TRUE!"

This is what she sent me...

For those of you who know me, you know I have two toddlers, for those of you who did not know that? Well, you know now. I have 4 children, two of whom are full fledged toddlers, a raging hormonal almost 11 year old who LOVES to be the center of attention, and a very cool 20 year old who was once both; well I take that back she did not particularly like the limelight. Given that fact, when I saw this I wanted to print it out and frame it! (I may very well do that!) In my mind it is a very inspirational reminder of how good it feels to feel like all eyes are on you, how exhilarating it can be to have others watch while you attempt to do something incredible (or stupid). We never think that we will mess up, we have confidence and that is why we want an audience. (or in the case of "hold my beer", perhaps too intoxicated to know we are on the verge of stupidity.)

I was a center-of-attention kind of kid, and I always had a delighted audience. Along the way I was damaged by being shut out... nobody cared to watch and when I asked nobody listened. It was pretty lonely, and frankly took YEARS to overcome. Self-esteem is delicate... very delicate. I was lucky enough to have certain people in my life help me believe in myself, but for a long time my audience was just me. I have gotten to a place now where people have joined my journey, they are riding my train, hanging on my coattails, watching me every day as I reach for the sky; I hope they are having as much fun as me. It feels good to have that audience back, because it truly does boost confidence when you have others say "good job, way to go!" and mean it.

I guess my short,sweet moral of tonight's story is no matter how tired, annoyed, and not in the mood you are to watch your kids or friends when they say "WATCH ME" remember that they are feeling confident at that moment and you NEED to cheer them on. (Unless of course cheering them on will likely ruin the family name or hurt someone. in that case... burst their bubble diplomatically.) Rejecting this moment could put a dent in their self esteem. If they fall on their face or mess up, be there to say "that was an awesome attempt, keep trying! There is no confidence killing in that statement, only encouragement to never give up! 

Have a great night, and next time someone says "Watch me" or "Hold my beer" 

perhaps you will think of me!

xoxo

~Shells~