the other day i overheard a conversation between an adult and a 12 year old girl. the girl made a comment about how one girl on her volleyball team, who actually happened to be quite good, made all A's whereas the rest of the girls on the team made A's and B's. the little girl rolled her eyes and said, "well, she's on QUIZ bowl." to which the adult replied, "well. quiz bowl's for dorks, so don't feel bad." aaaaand. i had several thoughts on this.
1. i was on quiz bowl in high school. my best friend and i joined for a few reasons. a) we were trying to get into as many school club pictures for the yearbook as possible (we may have won?) b) a lot of our friends were in quiz bowl and they didn't have any girls on the team. and c) FIELD TRIPS! who doesn't want 2-3 free days off of school? we would always get home before school was out, and they'd tell us to just go home instead of back to class. i liked being in quiz bowl.
2. kids do NOT need encouragement from adults to not like someone. they do this QUITE well on their own. tweens (and teens) can find endless things wrong with on another. they tease relentlessly, and don't need anyone to encourage that behavior, or give them another reason to make fun of someone. we need to encourage them to be more accepting and appreciate other people's giftings. (even if they are a little dorky.)
i think one thing i've really started to grasp over the past couple of years (being married to charlie and working at mpt) is that... people can (and DO) accept me with my faults. at times, i've tried to hide things about myself that i don't like just to protect myself from others... but thanks to charlie and arisa and ethan and lacey and dara (the people i spend the most time with in the world) i have learned that they love me even when i get all passive aggressive about having to do ethan's HIVAmat :) or 12 hivamats and 3 ultrasounds at the same time. this is freeing. it allows me to poke fun at myself because i can admit to my fault... and together we can laugh about it. it turns into something funny instead of something serious that i need to be ashamed of or hide (not that i don't have things to work on... NOT that i am completely perfect as is...) but it makes the process we're all going through in life okay.
End of Days (Film Review)
9 hours ago
I know exactly who you are talking about and that is so something that the adult would say! Sadly, I remember FRA being like that when I was there..
ReplyDeleteAnd I love that we can poke at each other about our faults-I wish I was better at this because sometimes I get mad or think that other people are judging me but I'm workin on it! I think it takes a very secure person to a) notice their faults and b) not get upset when other people joke about them (out of love, of course!) I'm gonna be like that one day..At least you got a surprise out of it..
Maybe that didn't sound right..what I said about joking about other people's faults..but you get what I mean I think!
ReplyDeletei know what you mean! and i definitely have to think hard about it... but i think about the fact that i don't love charlie any less just because he annoys me at times... you're not going to do something that makes me love YOU less... so i assume you all feel the same way about me, too :) (hopefully i'm not wrong about this! haha)
ReplyDeleteof course not!!
ReplyDeletebahaha quiz bowl. remember when we got to go to the ice skating place for that?
ReplyDeleteWhat a nerd, Melissa was on quiz bowl
ReplyDelete