Surviving Middle School by Luke Reynolds

Author:Luke Reynolds
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin / Beyond Worlds

For example, I remember a time I felt like crying (and, okay, did cry) when my six-year-old son (who loves drawing and art) said, “I’m not a good artist.” When he said this, I had to stop and take a breath. It was hard for both of us: I was having a hard time understanding why he was having a hard time—he’s such a great artist. To see just what the heck was going on under the surface, I had to take a few guesses at things I couldn’t yet see. When I did that, my list looked something like this:

1. Maybe one of my son’s friends saw a picture he drew and told him that it looked stupid or something.

2. Maybe my son heard ME say that I felt like I wasn’t a good writer, or a good teacher, or a good dirt digger, or (please, no!) a good dad. And if that is one of the reasons, then maybe I need to think more about what I say in front of my son when I’m having a bad day!

3. Maybe he thinks good art can ONLY look one way because of the books we’re reading. Maybe we need to get some books with pictures by Picasso. Yes! Picasso—who painted people with way too many faces and extra legs and whose bodies were half horse and all kinds of other crazy stuff!

4. Maybe I’m crying because when I was a kid I felt like I wanted to be good at something (basketball? writing? walking on only my big toes?) and felt like I was terrible at it. So maybe what my son is saying now touches all that stuff I felt when I was six years old . . .

You get the idea! (I hope.) I won’t bore you with all seven of my things. Making this list of seven things beneath the surface doesn’t always mean these seven possibilities are right on the nose, but they do help us to think deeper, to consider what else might be going on, and when we do that, we sometimes find that we have ideas for how to keep going. We get ideas and inspiration for what we can do to make things better. But if we just stay on the surface and stare at each other while the hard stuff happens to us, we might never get to these powerful (and, okay, sometimes painful) places where we realize all kinds of amazing stuff that can help us and people around us grow.

So have at it! Seven things beneath the surface of your hard thing . . .

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