When my oldest daughter was born, she had the sweet 😍spot. No siblings to share ⏰time with yet. Parents who were just starting to figure it out. Mia was my shadow. We went everywhere together- usually with her grabbing onto my legs or hiding behind my back when anyone approached us.
Mia was shy. She was the 🥰sweetest little girl with a smile that lit up her face, but she wouldn’t talk to anyone. She would usually look down at the ground or 🙈hide her face in my thigh. Say hello to a stranger? ❌No way! Order her own ice cream cone? ❌Forget it. Once she warmed up to you, she was a chatterbox. It just took a long time to warm up- sometimes never!🤣
As she grew older, Ken and I knew that Mia often needed a push to try something new. She had talked about auditions for the 🎭play when she was a freshman in high school but wasn’t sure that she really wanted to do it. So we made a deal with her. Mia might tell you that we forced her. 😂It’s all in your viewpoint- right? The deal was this: she had to try out for the play. That was it- just audition. ✅It didn’t matter if she got a part. She didn’t even have to take a role- if one was offered. The audition was the only thing she had to do. Just 👀see what it was all about. We had a sneaking suspicion that she would be great and that she would ❤️love it. Then, just as we thought, she was offered a part, which she happily accepted. Mia participated in every 🎭theatre production during high school and got a fine arts degree in acting at college. She’s now a coordinator at Disney🏰 World, where she interacts with cast members and guests from around the 🌎world every single day. The same little girl who hid behind my legs. The same little girl who couldn’t order her own 🍽chicken strips and fries at restaurants.
All it took was a push in the ➡️right direction with a dose of 🙌🏻faith in her abilities. She was not- I repeat NOT- happy when Ken and I forced her to do that first audition. 😂We laugh about it now. But, just think about the world that one audition in high school opened up for her. Ultimately, she took a risk that paid off. Even though we came up with the deal, she was the one who actually had to walk onto that stage and crush it. 🎉That one audition altered the course of her life. One decision to try something new.
It can feel dicey to try something new. 😬Tricky. Uncertain. Maybe even 😱frightening. But, it can be so worth it. My dad always said to 📝write down the pros and cons for considering new situations. His logic was simple. If the➕ pros outweigh the ➖cons, then you know what to do. He was right, you know. New things bring changes. 💫Introduce people into your life that you may not have met otherwise. 💫Take you places you’ve never been. 💫Open doors you didn’t even realize were closed.
A 📺TV commercial in the 1970s for Life cereal featured Mikey, a little guy who hated everything. He tried the cereal and liked it! ✅The kid who hated everything tried something new and liked it.
Try it- you’ll like it. 👍🏻Or- you might not. 👎🏻You’ll never know if you don’t try. There’s a risk to it, for sure. I second-guess and overanalyze every decision to try something new. 🧐I can’t help myself. But, you know what? I’m always proud of myself when I take the chance to investigate something new. 💫What if…you try something new? I bet you’ll be glad you did!💖
sharing the stairs 