Slice of Life - One's True Self

Two Writing Teachers

As I was reading a post on the Nerdy Book Club this weekend, I was reminded of a conversation that took place this summer between me and my son, Ethan.

I have two children, Megan a junior in college, and Ethan a junior in high school. The one thing they have in common is that they are both very quiet.  But Megan is a perfectionist who is very driven, while Ethan will probably live to be 120 because he is so laid back and doesn't let much bother him.

Three weeks before school started, I had taken him and his girlfriend shopping at a nearby mall.  As we were searching for tennis shoes that he liked and came in a size 13.5, we came across a display of Converse Chuck Taylor shoes.

"Oh mom, can I get a pair of these?'  he asked.

I quickly replied, "No, you won't wear them and it would be a waste of money."

"But I really want these,"  he continued.  "Come on.  These are cool."  He tried on a pair, and I tried really hard not to laugh.  This was just not something he would typically wear.

Needless to say, I won that battle, and we left the store without a pair of the Chuck Taylor's.

The real reason I didn't want to buy those shoes is because I thought kids would make fun of him.  I was trying to protect him from something I believed would be inevitable.  

I was trying to protect him from the cruelness of people who are insensitive to those who are different from them.

Two weeks later Megan and I were in Nashville shopping and I received this picture as a text on my phone.  It is my son wearing a pair of Chuck Taylor's.

I immediately texted back and asked him where, when, and why he got those shoes.

"Dad and I just got back from Kohl's and he bought them for me."  

I could not believe it.  I just knew this was the beginning something much bigger. Ethan has many friends, but is not one of the "popular" kids.  He is a golfer, but isn't what I would call one of the "jocks."  He plays the guitar, but he isn't in band.  School started, Ethan began wearing the shoes, and I began to worry.

A neighbor of ours found out that Ethan was wearing the black Chucks.  "G-man," as we call him, has stage four cancer and has started going through things and giving things away.  For some reason, he had a closet full of Chuck Taylor's that had never been worn...and in the exact size Ethan wore.  Ethan now not only owns one pair of Chucks, but six!  And wears them everyday!

  

So, as I read Sunday's  Nerdy post, I couldn't help but think about these words.

Let’s recall Emerson’s quote from up top, and agree that one of the greatest achievements in life is to become, simply, one’s true self.

To be content in your own skin.

To not look to others for your cues.

To accept and trust who you are, to follow your own inner compass.

I was worried about other kids making fun of Ethan.  But he wasn't.  Maybe I should realize that Ethan might just be his own true self.  That he accepts and trusts who he is.  That he follows his own inner compass.

That he is content in his own shoes skin!

Isn't that one of the goals of parenting?