My Inspiration

Me: “She’s very excited about the Spiderman jumping castle. I told her to be extra careful if she goes in it.”

Mr. H: “I’ll keep an eye out for her…the best I can. The kid is fearless.”

Mr. H is my daughter’s fourth grade teacher and this conversation took place earlier in the week when I dropped her off at school. Now let me give you a bit of background…The Princess was born with hemi-hydrocephaly. In plain English this means she was born missing the left side of her brain. Due to this, The Princess has had physical limitations including not being able to walk on her own until the age of 7 and limited use of her right arm, hand, and leg.

While my daughter is limited in some of her physical abilities, she is quick to try things on her own and she does this with no fear. On this particular day, the school was having a party for all of the students who met their reading goal and The Princess was eager to get into the jumping castle. As her mom, I know that jumping castles are not the safest place for any child especially one with physical limitations so I cringed inside when she proclaimed that she was going to try out the Spiderman jumping castle. My first thought was “you’re going to get hurt!” and the fear crept in. I jokingly told her, “Make sure you don’t hurt your pretty face”. She giggled and said, “Mom! Don’t be silly! I’m not going to get hurt!”

I think of the times when she was learning to walk. She tumbled, fell, and hit walls so many times I was sure that people thought I beat my child because of the bruises and scrapes she had. Every time, she would cry a bit, get back up, and try again. She has done this her entire life.

 There was the time she wanted to walk down the driveway to Tom’s truck on her own. I told her that the driveway was steep and she could trip but she insisted that she wanted to do it. She proudly walked out of the door, through the garage, and down the driveway. Halfway to the truck, I saw her feet start to drag and I just knew that she was going to fall. Sure enough, she fell to her knees and I rushed to her side. She let me help her up but pulled her hand away as I tried to walk with her the rest of the way. Stubbornly she proclaimed, “I can do it on my own, Mom” and off she went.

The Princess refuses to be told that she can’t do something and when she accomplishes her “goal”, the look of pride on her face is PRICELESS. Fear has no place in her life.

 As I sit here thinking about some of the goals I have set for myself, I have decided that I want to be exactly like my daughter.

I want to be confident.

I want to be strong-willed.

I want to be determined.

I want to be willing to keep getting up no matter how many times I fall.

I want to be fearless.