One day my daughter asked me if she could go to downtown and buy lunch during the school lunch break.
I said yes. She is old enough to practice spending money and develop her life management skill.
And then she added anxiously,
“But I may not be able to figure out how to go back to school.”
I said to her “Digby downtown is too small to get lost!”
Her argument was as she had only so much time, she had no time to wander around.
Understandable.
So I suggested,
“Why don’t you ask your friend to come with you?”
She immediately responded,
“No, M and O won’t come because they always go to O’s house for lunch.”
Okay.
How about P? No, she wouldn’t be there that day. Okay.
So I continued,
“Why don’t you ask anyway? M or O may come just to help you or hang out with you.”
“No, they won’t.”
So I said,
“You know, you have the tendency to come to the conclusion before you try.
They may not come with you, but why don’t you ask first? They may surprise you.
“You decide how things would be before you try.
You conclude only with what you think.
But what’s in your head is teeny tiny thing compared with the reality.
In other words, you are limiting yourself with what’s in your head.”
“That’s why I challenge you.
When you say something, I ask what the information source is.
I ask you if that’s what you think, you heard or you confirmed.
I tell you to check, double or triple if possible, how true it is.
“What you think doesn’t count.
What it is really matter.
Talk with people. Ask questions. Seek the reflection of the truth in the real world.”
Okay, enough lecture for a 13-year-old.
But it is what I keep telling myself always.
“Why do you decide so? You’ll never know until you try!”