Smallsteps surprised my wife last night, as while getting ready for bed, she casually mentioned that the teacher asked who wanted to try to be the class representative for the student council, and she put her hand up. This was a bit of a shock because while very intelligent, she is not socially outgoing and will rarely do things if she is unsure of her abilities, until she sees others do it first.
However, while she told about this last night, the voting had already happened, with four other people putting up their hand for the job. And when asked, while she really didn't expect to win, the reason she volunteered and put her hand up, because she thinks that she will be good at the job. Or, at least two out of three requirements.
Listen, be thoughtful, and speak to the group.
It is the "speak in front of others" that slowed the raise of her hand considerably, because while she is much better than she was, that is not her strong point, and she unfortunately knows it. She has been forcing herself to be a bit bolder, but it doesn't come naturally for her. One thing she did find hilarious though, was that it was okay to vote for yourself, and she did. This cracked her up that at least she will get one vote.
My wife told me about this after Smallsteps went to bed and as she is away for the night, she was preparing me to be gentle if Smallsteps didn't get the position. Just in case I was going to be cruel, I guess. Though, I understand her, because I am the "bad cop" parent, who sees lessons in everything and believes that children should learn how to deal with disappointment and failure.
But I know that while she wasn't expecting to win, the fact she put her hand up at all shows that she really does want to get the position. So, when I picked her up from school, I asked how her day was and she asked,
Did Mummy tell you about that school thing?
Yes. How'd it go?
I won.
And after lots of congratulations and me calling her Madam President, we decided to have a Daddy-Daughter date and go out for a burger together to celebrate her foray into public service.
She is eight and it is a meaningless position of course, and she even knows it, but she is looking forward to being part of it and interacting with kids older than herself. While she is incredibly nervous about this and the speaking parts, she is also adamant to try in a way that I haven't seen her do before in this area.
It makes me wonder how many people have taken an interest in something when they were young, and it has nudged them into a career path. For instance, a friend of mine around the same age liked math and started the longest long division question ever on paper, which ended up being thousands of sheets of dot matrix printer paper stickytaped together. He became an engineer.
It also got me thinking about at that age, I had very few interests at all and ever since, I have never really been passionate about anything. Never even really a fan of a band, or a sporting team. I liked things and still do, but have never chased something I really wanted. And, while I have survived, I think my lack of "commitment" shows through my career path, or lack thereof.
I hope Smallsteps really discovers a handful of things that she loves in life, and then finds a way to not only do them, but keep improving in them over time. Perhaps even developing a career through one of them, so that she can do what she loves, and pay the bills. Which is obviously pretty rare in this life.
The future employment market is likely going to be significantly different to what we have today, so which skills are valuable will change. However, I believe that human skills will be in demand for some time to come. I think that this is especially true as our general social skills decline, so that those with higher level skill will stand out and be employable because of the gap.
I don't know what Smallsteps will end up doing, but whatever she chooses, the foundations are already being built. As are the foundations of all the other kids, and I suspect that many of them are going to end up building a house of straw, as it is fast, easy and convenient.
The three pillars of modern society.
Taraz
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