A lesson in being yourself

For this story to make sense you will need a little background.  Every Friday is "Fun Friday" at Preston Taylor Ministries during which the kids take part in various different enrichment activities during the normal programming time.  Some of the activities include: learning guitar, learning French, art, gardening, training for a 5k, etc.  The kids are a part of the same activity for 6 weeks then, after 6 weeks some of the activities change and the children pick a new activity.  I do not work on Fridays so I have never seen the day in action, but I have heard about it and seen the excitement on children’s' faces as they wait for Friday and talk about what awaits. 

So my story begins...

Last week the children were signing up for a new Fun Friday activity.  Ms. Sarah was reading out an option and any interested child was to raise his/her hand.  One of the new activities for this period is ballet (which could not be any more exciting!!)  When Ms. Sarah called out ballet, just about every girl’s hand shot into the air and, as you can imagine, a unified grumbling rolled through the boys.  That is, except for the little boy sitting in my lap, one of our kindergarten boys who is a ball of energy and excitement.  Well, his hand shot in the air and started to wave frantically back and forth, a silent "Oh! Oh! Pick me! Pick me!"  I will admit I was a bit surprised as his enthusiasm was unexpected.  When Ms. Sarah called out his name to add him to the list the other kids immediately started laughing.  As the group received a lecture about laughter being inappropriate and that each student is allowed to choose whatever they want and there is nothing wrong with whatever that choice may be.  However, throughout all of this commotion this little boy sat there, unfazed and beyond excited about the prospect of starting ballet!  As the day went on it seemed as though other students went out of their way to pick fun at him, or sneer at him that "ballet is a girl thing,"  but all of these remarks were laid on deaf ears.  This student could not be knocked down from his high.  Instead, he ran around, worked hard and spent any free time showing off his ballet moves.  I was beyond impressed with his pliès and all of his spinning and twirling.  More than that, I was inspired by his impenetrable spirit.  It was a humbling experience to watch a six-year-old boy brush off negative comments, laughter, and jokes at his expense because he was so self-assured and confident in himself and his passion for ballet.  I think I can safely say that I learned a valuable lesson from a six year old the other day; a lesson that I can only hope to apply in the face of life’s challenges.  I’ll keep ya’ll posted on that.  

Side note: This weekend I learned where Mr. Witherspoon (Reese's father) lives, and apparently met Kevin Mawae.