I decided to give 🪨rocks to my 8th-grade students as they left middle school to move on to high school. Yes- 🪨rocks. There was a method to my madness. Plus, it was a lot of fun to create them.😍
These kids are making giant leaps in life as they transition to high school. They’ve built 💕friendships, established ⏰routines, and started to find themselves in recent years. Those things will continue in high school with new distractions that they can’t imagine right now. 🙃The truth of the matter is that they may not have any of their old friends in classes next year. 😞They may even choose to venture into different extra-curricular activities than previously anticipated. It’s a time of change, and for some, the change will be dramatic. ‼️
I want them to move on to the next chapter 🌟believing in themselves, 🌟knowing that they have what it takes to succeed. This is where the 🪨rocks come in. For their ‘going-away-presents,’ I wrote individual 📝notes to each student. The last line for every message was this: Always believe in yourself! ✨Those notes were put into bags with personalized rocks. After using some sneaky maneuvers to find out their favorite colors, I 🎨painted “Believe in…” on one side and their names on the other side. 🥰
My thinking was that these 🪨rocks might become touchstones. Maybe they’ll remember that someone had ✨faith in them and that they should have ✨confidence in themselves. I hope they’ll put the 🪨rocks somewhere special- perhaps a drawer or a desk or a 🎒backpack pocket- where they can pull it out whenever those 👻doubts creep in- because they will creep in.
We all need something to ✨believe in- 🙏🏻prayer, hard work, fate, ❤️love. Things to serve as our guides. It is just as important to ✨believe in ourselves. Ask for advice from friends. Talk to family. Pray. Seek counseling. But- be ready to act. All of that is nothing if actions don’t follow. That’s where the belief in self comes in.
I had to show up for myself when I struggled and felt alone before. 💪🏻If need be, I can do it again. I bet you have, too. Life delivers the hills and the valleys. We have to believe that we can handle all of them.✅
Moxie. Gumption. Strong will. Those aren’t 🚫negative things. We’re the only ones living the lives we’ve been given. No one is going to be there throughout the entire journey. Did that thought just make you gasp? 😮It’s true. Think about it. From birth to death, people come in and out of our lives. We are the constant. I believe that we are supposed to learn something from others. We also teach something to everyone we encounter. But- it doesn’t 🛑stop there. We have to learn from ourselves. We have to be comfortable ✨showing up for ourselves. ✨Standing up for ourselves. ✨Being good to ourselves. It’s not selfish.
What if… you remember the 🪨rocks? When no one else is there, YOU are there! 💯You make the difference in your own life—no one else. You hold the power, and you can do the hard work. Believe in yourself!💖
sharing the stairs 